Going on Holidays… and more Red Cordial
by Firmament
Summary: Sequel to Red Cordail, where Max and Logan head off to the cabin. Only they aren't there yet but should be soon. Hope you enjoy. M/L Season 1, Pre-Haven-ish time
1. Getting Out Of Bed

Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel. I seek no financial gain from this.

Authors note: Okies people. After thinking over a few things, and deciding that I had nothing much else to write, I decided to do a sequel to Red Cordial. If you haven't read Red Cordial, it might help to explain a few things, i.e. the current situation and mood of Max and Logan. Chapters might be fairly spasmodic since I'm fairly busy at the mo', but we'll see.

Story note: I am a little weary of this chapter. If some of you out there don't like the idea of it being spent completely naked, don't worry, the next few won't be like that. And those that do, there may be another one further down the track, lots further. This story should see our two finally getting to Logan's cabin, which was supposed to be the focus of Red Cordial, but I've got Milla keeping me in line so we should get there. Chapters are going to be shorter this time around I would imagine, but that probably means there will just be more. I hope you enjoy the first instalment.

Special thanks: The wonderful Milla, who has made all this a whole lot better, trust me. Ta.

Chapter 1 – Getting Out Of Bed

Max woke from such a deep sleep that she at first didn't understand why there was so much resistance to her movement. Attempting to move, ,a sudden murmur caught her attention, and it was then she realised she was still in bed with Logan, who was still asleep. They were twisted into a very intricate knot, but that wasn't what was stopping her from moving. Her skin was actually sticking to Logan's, and she smelt the sickly sweet aroma of the red cordial that had been spilt all over them. A strong glue had resulted from a mix of the red cordial and their combined sweat. Max awkwardly tried to untie herself from Logan, whilst peeling her head from his chest. This last action awoke Logan with a start and a slight yelp.

"Ow! What are you doing?" Logan asked, confused when he was woken by having the hairs on his chest ripped out.

"I'm just getting up," Max replied. 

'Right, one motion, like a bandaid,' she thought, then suddenly sprung back from Logan, causing him to scream a bit more.

"Could you warn me ne…" Logan was trying to act on the pain and be a little stroppy, but as soon as he looked at Max, kneeling on the edge of his bed, completely naked, all thought, all pain, nearly everything disappeared. It was very dark so he wasn't able to see anything except for the faintest outline of her body created by the moonlight shining in the window behind Max, creating an eerie silver glow around her face and a magically soft smouldering of her eyes. Logan was dumbstruck with the sight, and lay there in a daze staring at her with an open mouth.

"What was that Logan?" Max questioned playfully, knowing that he had been dumbstruck. Logan didn't reply and was still gawping at Max. She started to feel a little self-conscious now, so she spun around and sat on the edge of the bed with her legs over the side and her feet on the ground. She groped behind her until she found the sheet that was remotely covering Logan, pulled it around her shoulders and stood up. Max then looked over at the clock beside Logan's bed and saw that it was 3:00 in the morning. 'Well, it's no twelve hours, but it was pretty damn fun.' Max thought, slightly disappointed she hadn't beaten Kendra's score. She turned her head around and saw Logan looking up at her, a completely contented smile on his face; he actually looked a little goofy. Knowing Logan couldn't see in the dark, this was a truly honest expression on his face, and it made Max feel terrific. Logan had grabbed the blanket from the end of the bed and pulled it over the bottom half of his person; she wasn't sure if he was being shy, or just unwilling to be that crude.

"So what are you going to do with your last two days before you go back to work?" Logan asked her. She was in a pleasant reverie, reliving moments that she had shared with him, but then what he said started to get worked on with her brain.

"What, it's only Friday, I still have another two days after this one before I go back to work," Max replied defensively. Logan's smile doubled as he looked at her. He lay there for a few seconds, propped up on his elbow, the smile nearly splitting his face in half. Max started to become embarrassed, as his eyes hadn't left her the whole time. She knew he couldn't see the confusion and chagrin on her face.

"Max. It is Saturday," Logan finally spoke; the tone was reassuring in that he wasn't lying about it, or making fun of her.

"What do you mean it's Saturday? Do you mean we've… We've been having sex for over 30 hours?" Max asked incredulously, entirely amazed that she had apparently lost a day in their throes of passion.

"Well I'm not one to boast…" Logan said, as he shrugged his shoulders.

"…but yes, we have been." As a mischievous smile crossed his face. Max grinned and went a little silly as she giggled slightly. She calmed herself a bit then looked down at Logan.

"Well I'm going to have a shower. You wanna join me?" Max had left concern for these sorts of question a long time back.

"I'd love to, but if you're serious about actually making it to work some time this week it's probably best if we don't. That's where we went wrong last time," Logan replied, as he flopped back down onto his back again, head turned to still look at Max. It took her a while to remember what had actually happened, but when it came back, it came back strong.

Yesterday morning around 7:00 or 8:00, during a little breather, Logan suggested they have a shower to clean all the red cordial off themselves. They made it into the bathroom, but that was about as far as they got. The shower was never turned on, and they were back on Logan's bed shortly afterwards.

"Oh yeah," Max said quietly, padding softly around the bed and toward Logan's shower. However, just as she got to the door, a small flame had rekindled inside her as she couldn't help but relive some of the previous days activities, and so she turned and sauntered back toward Logan.

"You know Logan… It's only 3:00, and I still have a whole weekend before I go back to work…" Max said suggestively, as she came to a stop next to Logan's bed. Logan looked up in the vague direction he heard the voice coming from. He knew that Max was standing next to the bed, with the sheet wrapped around her, and he could see the glistening of her eyes as they looked down into his.

"Yeah it is. But you know how you don't need sleep? That's something I'm not able to do yet, and certainly not after so much physical activity. Max, I'm exhausted." Logan finished with a sigh as he placed a hand lovingly on her leg and gave it a gentle squeeze. Max was slightly hurt but was more worried with the fact that Logan probably saw her as some sex freak now or something.

"Okay then," she replied quietly as she turned and headed to the shower once more. Logan could hear the hurt in her voice, so he reached out and grabbed the pool of sheet still on the ground next to his bed. 

Max was pulling the sheet tighter around her shoulders as she headed to the shower, feeling more and more stupid with what she had just done, when suddenly she jerked to a stop. She turned around and saw Logan halfway out of the bed, pulled by her movement, but with a fierce grip on the sheet. He could tell she was looking at him again, as he could see the light in her eyes and the reflection of her teeth as a huge smile broke across her face. Max couldn't help but smile as she saw Logan hanging out of the bed, trying to push himself back in whilst continuing to grip the sheet. When he had finally got back into bed and was lying down again, still with the sheet in his hand, Max spoke.

"What exactly are you doing?" Max asked playfully. In response Logan started reeling her in with the sheet, and she didn't resist.

"I can always sleep when you're at work," he replied, smiling as Max finally reached the edge of the bed. He saw her teeth flash again in the darkness and the sheet was flung from her shoulders. Logan really wished that he could see in the dark at times like these, but still, the vague outline of Max's naked body was more amazing than anything he had imagined. Even more amazing than that was the sensation of it as she jumped on top of him; a sensation that was becoming a lot more recognised of late. Their lips met instantly. Now the sensations were no longer new, but that made them even more amazing, as familiar hands roamed her body. Logan could feel Max smiling uncontrollably as they kissed, which caused him to smile significantly as well.

A few hours later Max and Logan were lying together still in bed. Logan had his arm around Max's shoulders and was absently drawing small circles on her arm with his fingers. Max was huddled close to Logan, her leg over his, an arm around his upper body and her head once again firmly stuck to his chest, a large smile on her face. Her stomach burbled loudly, causing both of them to laugh.

"Suppose I better feed you," Logan said, addressing Max's belly.

"Yes please." He felt more than heard Max reply, as her head was still on his chest, and with her voice the enchanting vibrations ran through his body.

"Okay then, it's about breakfast time anyway. But shower first," Logan directed. He felt that he should be getting up, to act on his plan, but was too tired and happy with the position he was currently in. Max, on the other hand, hadn't eaten for over a day, so food was the most forward subject on her mind. She jumped to action, ripping her face from Logan's chest – resulting in more screaming on his behalf – and gathering the sheet around her again before she got out of bed. It was light now, so the desire to cover herself up in front of Logan had grown. She wasn't sure why; after all she had been rolling around naked with him for the past two days. This, however, was different for some reason, since Logan would be able to see her full body at a distance. Max didn't really care however, she figured it was because the heat had worn off – or more appropriately been eradicated – so she was feeling a little more self-conscious in front of him. She knew it was something she had to work on, which was a pleasant idea, since that meant this would be happening again. As Max walked over to the shower again with a peculiar smile on her face, and once more with the long sheet trailing behind her, Logan spoke.

"You have a nice long shower now, then I'll jump in quickly after. Then we can get you some food." Max turned her head and smiled at him, and continued on her way to the shower. She was hungry, but at the moment she just felt like having a nice long soak in the shower. She figured food could wait for a while. Logan, on the other hand, had plans.

As soon as Max closed the door to the bathroom, and he heard the water running he sprang to action, leaping out of bed and heading to the phone. He wasn't sure how to do this, since he hadn't done it for a very long time, but he knew it had to be done quickly. A few minutes later he had contacted whom he wanted, and was talking hurriedly and in a hushed voice.

"Okay, but you have to be quick. She'll be out of the shower in about 20 minutes. You got the address? Right. Okay, please be quick. Bye." Logan hung up the phone and nervously paced around the living room for a few moments, considering if what he had just done was the right thing. At the moment he had no other ideas, but that didn't make him feel any better.

Max was greatly enjoying her shower, letting the warm water cascade over her head and down her body. The water had a slight red tinge to it from all the cordial she had on herself, and this made her smile. She was sure that she heard Logan jump out of bed – since she had noticed it had a distinctive squeak in a particular place – and he was running around doing something. Max was forced to bite her lip when she thought about the squeak in Logan's bed, since it was still Logan's bed, not theirs or anything like that. Well, not yet.

Logan was still pacing around; worrying that Max wasn't going to stay in the shower for 10 minutes, let alone 20. All of a sudden an idea came to mind, which may be a little dicey, but Logan could see many positives in it.

Max was running her fingers through her now straight, but still tangled hair, when she heard the bathroom door opening.

"Logan?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah," he responded awkwardly, and Max could tell he was nervous about being in here. What he said next took her completely by surprise.

"Thought I'd take you up on your earlier offer. Saves water and everything," he said, making up a lame excuse just to ease the pressure of the situation a little. Max was dumbstruck, she hadn't expected anything like this and suddenly a great nervousness settled in her stomach. Something she hadn't felt since a few days ago, when she asked Logan to 'help her out' when she was in heat. She tried to remain cool and calm but this lasted only a few seconds as she stuttered whilst speaking.

"O-Okay, then. Um… how we gonna do this?"

"Well in the traditional manner I suppose. I get in the shower… with you," Logan responded, he sounded a lot more relaxed than he felt. There was a slight pause, both of them standing uneasily on either side of the shower door, each of them able to see the blurred outline of the other through the corrugated glass. 'Okay, Max, you can do this. You've just been rolling around naked with this man for the last 30-something hours.' Max thought, taking short breaths and trying to psyche herself up. She didn't really know why, and was little annoyed that she should care so much what she looked like all of a sudden. Max could see Logan's hand coming up to the door handle, only to withdrawn at the last second. This happened a few times before Max finally got too frustrated with the situation and flung the door open herself.

"Come on, this is ridiculous," Max said, as she grabbed Logan's outstretched arm – he had been reaching for the handle again – and pulled him in the shower with her. Now that Logan was in the shower with her, she became a little shy again; and at this moment she didn't have all the hormones coursing through her body so she could just ignore it. Logan on the other hand had just been pulled through his barrier of anxiety, so decided to do the same for Max; hopefully. He approached her and placed his arms around her, picking up the soap from behind her. Logan rubbed the soap in between his hands for a while to develop a lather. After he had achieved a sufficient foam, he started to massage Max's back and shoulders. Max was feeling greatly relaxed now, and murmured in appreciation to Logan's touch.

"You're the dirty one, and look what you're doing. Getting me all sticky again," Max pointed out as she played a single finger across Logan's shoulder.

"Oh sorry," Logan responded, as he stepped back from Max, and brought the soap to his body, and started to clean all the red cordial off. 

"You're doing it all wrong," she said, mock scoldingly as she grabbed the soap from Logan. He grinned like an idiot, as he realised what this meant.

"Let me show you," Max said, and started to rub the soap into Logan's chest and shoulders. When his upper body was covered in soap, he started to head towards the spray, to wash it off, but Max stopped him.

"Probably shouldn't waste soap either, it's pretty hard to come by," Max said coyly, as she wrapped her arms around Logan, rubbing herself against his soaped body. Logan had the sudden thought that this shower was now probably going to take a lot longer than the 20 minutes he had intended to stall her for. 'Oh well, at least we are out of bed,' he thought, smiling to himself, and for no real reason kissing Max on the cheek.

* * *


	2. Wearing Robes

Disclaimer: Own Dark Angel, I do not. After money, nope.

Authors note: After a fair length of time, here comes the second chapter. This was by far the hardest chapter to write ever, and I'm really not too happy with it. Well I wasn't, then Milla fixed it up a plenty, so I'm a little more impressed but still don't really like the chapter. I haven't started a third, as I have well and truly hit a large wall. I'm straining for ideas but nothing is coming, so it may be a while until I get the third chapter out. Sorry for those of you who actually care.

Story note: This chapter sees our two finally getting some clothes on, but it isn't really that good, I'm sorry. I hope to produce something better for the next chapter. Really.

Special thanks: Milla the Marvellous. Man, this chapter was really crap before she had a go at it. Thanks a bundle Milla.

Chapter 2 – Wearing Robes

They had been in the shower for over 40 minutes. Cleaning each other, getting a little distracted, then requiring to clean each other again. Logan had entirely forgotten that he was expecting someone, and had he remembered, he probably would have been annoyed with it. Just as they had finished rinsing the sudds of each other – for about the fifth time – the doorbell rang. Both of them straightened instantly with the noise, and Logan started to get out of the shower.

"Let me get that. You can stay in here if you want," Logan stated hurriedly as he jumped out of the shower, towelled himself quickly and put a robe on.

"Nah, I think I'll get out now. Don't want to turn into a giant prune," Max said, as she stepped out of the shower. Again Logan forgot what was going on, and the reason he had left the shower in such a hurry. There was Max, standing in front of him dripping wet, with steam coming off her body from the hot water. Her wet hair was hanging down longer than it usually did, sticking to her shoulders and face a little. Max caught him looking at her, and was happy that she didn't feel uncomfortable with it at all.

"Hey, haven't you seen enough of me naked lately?" she asked playfully. In response Logan's head shook slowly as he stuttered a few mumbled words; something along the lines of 'No'. Logan was violently ripped from his observation as the doorbell rang once more. His cheeks went a little red as he handed Max a towel, and made his way out of the bathroom and toward the front door. When Logan opened the door, there was a man standing there with a package, apologising profusely for being so late.

"My deepest apologies for the delay, Mr. Cale. Of course, it is entirely complementary due to the wait," he said, handing Logan the package. Logan wasn't paying attention; in fact he was hardly looking at the man. He was too busy craning his neck around in the direction of the bathroom, and he was still in a complete daze with the events of the last few days.

"Yes, yes… good, good," Logan said absently, handing the man a couple of large bills then closing the door and heading toward the kitchen. The man stood there stunned, grasping the bills that had been shoved into his hand. He walked away muttering.

"More money than sense."

Logan was in the kitchen preparing the food when Max walked in, wrapped in a large robe. He immediately felt better. When he had left Max in the bathroom he instantly felt the overwhelming sense of her absence, and wanted nothing more than to run back in there, just so he could see her.

"Logan Cale. You bought food?" Max asked incredulously as she strolled over to the counter, leaning her elbows on it and resting her face in the palms of her hands. She was beaming at him the whole time, and even though she had asked about the food, her eyes had not left him for one moment. Now it was Logan's turn to go all warm and tingly. He smiled down at her; loving the fact that she was wearing one of his robes, which looked far too large and ridiculous on her, but still amazing.

"Yeah, I figured you would want food as soon as you got out of the shower, and I knew I wouldn't have time to make anything for you. So I ordered something," Logan explained, as he began to empty the contents of the bag into various dishes.

"So you only came into the shower to stall me?" Max asked, pretending to be hurt. Logan could see straight through her.

"Yep," was his response, as he went to the fridge and grabbed some juice.

"Not that it didn't have some other perks," he continued, and when he saw Max smiling, he smiled back, but still kept talking.

"You know. Like saving water and soap, and all that." He was still smiling at her like an idiot.

"Oh fine," Max said, as she grabbed a napkin and threw it at him. Logan gathered up the napkin and folded it neatly, placed it on the tray he had been arranging, and then picked it up and headed over to the table. Max stood there resolute for a moment, until the heavenly scent of the food wafted over to her, and again her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten for a long time. By the time Max had arrived at the table, Logan was already seated, and had started to divi out the plates of food. When Max noticed that Logan had nearly as much, or maybe even a little more than her, she decided to complain.

"Hey, since when did you eat that much food?" she pouted, standing akimbo, looking down at Logan. He glanced up at her with a mischievous look on his face.

"Well, I can't have a fat girlfriend, can I?" Logan asked, completely facetiously and smiled at Max as he spooned some of the contents off his plate back to hers.

"Yeah," Max replied absently, in a dazed and somewhat giggly voice. All she had heard from Logan's statement was 'girlfriend' and the fact that he was talking about her. Logan could see Max's eyes were slightly glazed over and she was in a completely different place.

"Max. I was only joking," he said seriously, as he thought what he had said had been taken to heart by Max.

"What?" Max snapped, looking at Logan with a twisted face.

"I am your girlfriend. You said so," Max continued, her voice sounding a little desperate. Logan didn't say anything for a while, since what Max had just said was starting to sink in. 'I am your girlfriend….'. His eyes widened in realisation and his lips parted slightly.

"Yeah. You are," Logan finally spoke, warmly, more to himself than Max. It felt really good to say that. The emotion and happiness in Logan's voice was enough for Max, so she took the seat across from him and started at the food. She had been eating for a while, when she noticed that Logan was still sitting across from her, not having touched his food, and was smiling at her contently. 

"What?" she asked, puzzled, and felt a little embarrassed with his intense gaze.

"Nothing," Logan responded, smiling more and shaking his head ever so slightly. He didn't stop looking at her, and the light in his eyes continued to grow. After another few mouthfuls Max stopped again.

"What is it Logan? Are you going to eat or just sit there staring at me?" Max asked, flustered with the power of Logan's fixed regard. In response, Logan picked up his fork, and made a stab at the food on his plate, which made Max feel a little easier, until she noticed that Logan was still looking at her. The food on his fork kept falling off before it made it to his mouth, but he far from cared. Finally he broke his silence.

"You know Max? You are really, really pretty." Max couldn't help but blush with the complement, and what was worse was that she didn't know how to respond. Eventually she looked up at him – since she had been focusing on her food – and smiled weakly.

"Um… thanks," she said in a small and embarrassed voice. Logan seemed happy with this response so finally turned his sight to his food and began to eat.

'He's nice,' Max thought as she regarded Logan for a moment. After a small while of observing him, she turned back to her food. The rest of the meal was spent in relative silence, since each of them was starved from not eating for the past few days. When Logan had cleaned his plate, he stood up sharply and walked out of the room, speaking to Max over his shoulder in a tired voice.

"Leave all the dishes till later." And with that he was gone from the room. Max was a little confused as to why Logan had gotten up and left, so she shovelled the rest of the food into her mouth and followed him. He had been heading in the direction of his bedroom, which was where Max headed first.

'Maybe he's getting dressed or something. I'm sure he needs some help,' she thought happily as she walked to his room. When she got there, however, the room was completely bare – of Logan anyway – and all that she could see was the ruined bed, with the sheets stained and hanging all over the place. The room also smelt heavily of them and the red cordial, but there was no sign of Logan. Max concentrated a little and heard Logan's easy constant breathing down the hall, coming from the guest room. She decided to investigate, but quietly. Max stealthily moved into the hall on her tiptoes, immediately putting her back to the wall, and gently running her fingers along it as she moved. This was done by mere habit, as it always told her pretty much where everyone was in the building, or if anyone was moving. Max could tell the distance and speed of a body by the minute vibrations that her sensitive fingertips could interpret. As she stood in the doorway of the room she noticed his feet sticking off the side of the bed. Max stood there with a slight cock in her hips as she looked down at Logan, spread across the bed face down, and very asleep.

When Logan had stood up from the table at breakfast, he very quickly realised that sleep was lacking from his body. He had intended to go to his bedroom to put some clothes on, then perhaps spend the day lazing around on the couch or something. When he got to his room, however, he noticed the bed in the absolute state of dismantlement, and forgot about getting dressed. Instead he slowly stumbled down the hall until he came to the spare room, and from the doorway in which he stood the made, clean bed looked very inviting. He managed to make it to the edge and then he collapsed across it, feeling warm and happy as sleep quickly overtook him. Too tired to dream, Logan lay there asleep, until something started wriggling around on the bed. He ever so slightly opened his eyes – which took a considerable amount of effort – and found Max turning him on his side a little so she could get into the warm embrace his arms offered. Logan found it quite amusing as Max shifted him around, then grabbed his arms and wrapped them around herself as she wriggled her back closer to his chest. Logan tightened his grip around Max, who smiled and kissed his forearm. The combined effect of Logan's comforting embrace and his warm breath across her barcode, had Max quickly falling asleep.

Max awoke later to find the penthouse in an inky blackness. She turned her head and noticed that Logan was still asleep with a big grin on his face, and his arms still wrapped around her. Max revelled in the fact that she had slept all day - something she had never done before - with Logan and they were still only wearing their robes. She wriggled around a bit so she was lying on her back, but still in Logan's arms. From this position she was able to look up at his face, and she raised her hand and gently outlined his jaw line, coming to a stop at his chin. Overjoyed with the situation, Max let out a small contented sigh. Suddenly the door burst open in an explosion of splinters and large chunks of wood. When the dust had cleared a little, Logan - who had been awoken by the noise and was now incredibly confused - looked to the doorway. Max saw and knew immediately who it was, but Logan, who couldn't see in the dark, was still straining to make out a figure. Max saw the gun being raised and pointing at Logan.

"Zack!" she yelled as she made a lunge for him. It was too late. Zack had already fired off three rounds into Logan's upper body. Max was upon him instantly. She kicked the gun out of his hand and followed through with the other foot, which landed across his face. Zack was down for the moment so Max ran over to Logan. When she got there her lip started to quiver and tears poured openly down her face. Logan had been hit three times around the heart, and he was still alive, but would only remain that way for a few seconds.

"M-Max," Logan spluttered, trying to sit up in the blood stained bed a little.

"D... Don't move Logan. It's gonna be okay." She knew she was lying, and that made it even worse. There was no way this was going to be okay. Max's hands were shaking as she stroked his face again and again, trying to ease his pain or just make him better. She didn't notice that Zack had come up from behind and was approaching her with a needle. Max snapped around, and ready to fight when she felt the sting of the needle entering her neck.

"What? You!" she yelled, voice full of venom. Zack quickly picked Max up around the waist and started to carry her out of the room. Her flailing legs and arms seemed to have no effect on Zack, who continued to walk out with his sister held tightly in his arms. Just as they were leaving the room, she heard Logan call out.

"Max..." And then she couldn't hear his breathing anymore.

"It's not safe for you Maxie. He was weak," Zack said curtly and business like.

"I don't care!" Max yelled at him, and once again started to throw her arms and legs around wildly in an attempt to get him to drop her. No matter how hard she tried, his grip around her waist didn't falter. Max could now start to feel the effect of whatever Zack had injected her with, and was trying weakly to pull his arms off her waist until she blacked out.

Logan was in the middle of a very fun dream. He was with Max, and was tickling her. When she started to giggle profusely and tried to get away from him, he had picked her up. He now had her around the waist and continued to use his fingers to tickle her stomach and sides. Max was still laughing and occasionally threatening him, but she seemed to be enjoying herself.

Max's eyes snapped to find the penthouse in an inky blackness. She looked nervously to the door, and could have sworn she heard a noise. She noticed that Logan still had his arms wrapped around her, and when she looked at him a pained expression came across her face.

'I can't do this. He's not safe,' she thought, panicked. She tried pulling Logan's arms from around her, but noticed that he had quite a substantial grip at the moment. Max thought she heard a floorboard outside creak. She was becoming more frantic as the seconds ticked by in the early evening. The thought of Zack coming in and shooting Logan seemed too plausible and real to ignore.

'I've got to get out of here,' Max thought worriedly, as she started to pull Logan's arms off with more force.

Logan knew he wasn't in a dream anymore when Max's attempts to pull his arms from her started hurting a lot. He awoke and blinked a few times, to find Max anxiously trying to pull his arms off from around her.

"Max. What's going on?" Logan asked concerned. Max seemed very desperate to get away from him.

"I… I can't do this Logan. It's not… I just can't," Max explained, although she didn't want to tell him why she had the leave. Her voice was weak and sounded broken, which worried Logan. Max had finally struggled free and was standing at the edge of the bed with her back to Logan.

"Max. What's going on?" Logan asked as he moved over to the side of the bed Max was standing, and placed a hand on her hip. When Max felt the hand on her hip, a burning fire ran through her body from the point of contact. She felt nervous being this close to Logan now, because of her dream. The pressure was building in her intensely.

"I'm sorry Logan. I have to go," Max said quietly. As she turned to leave Logan caught her hand, forcing her to look at him. Straight away he noticed the excess moisture in her eyes.

"Max. Please, tell me what's going on," Logan pleaded. Max raised a hand to place on his cheek, but pulled away hesitantly.

"I just can't do this now. I'm sorry." And with that she was gone. Logan knew it was pointless to follow her now. He just listened to the sound of her turning over his room collecting her clothes, then eventually the door closing, and then the final heart-tearing sound of her motorbike disappearing into the night. And still he sat there, on the bed in his robe.

* * *


	3. Late Night Visitors

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, and I don't own the show.

Authors note: Another large delay before the chapter came up. This is primarily due to my complete lack of inspiration, and the amount of time Uni is consuming. I already have the next chapter mapped out - pretty much - in my mind, so it shouldn't take too long, but I do have a few presentations soon… so we'll see.

Story note: I was quite fond of this chapter. Mainly because of the time of evening and the weather I am hopefully portraying. Also because of the lead up to the next few chapters, which should be a bit of fun. I bet no one can guess who the visitor is, seriously.

Special thanks: Maximum Girl Milla, the amazing beta, using her powers for good.

Chapter 3 – Late Night Visitors

Max was nervously seated on her couch, knee cocked up with her chin resting on it. The fear from her nightmare was still lingering in her system, and she hadn't even begun to think how this would be affecting Logan. The realism and graphic nature when she had seen and heard Logan dying in front of her still haunted her mind. She dreaded closing her eyes because even a blink would show images of Logan shot and dying in her arms. Max knew it wasn't real, but she was still panicked and it still felt as if it could happen. The door burst open and she snapped around ready for action, her face taut and pained.

"What the hell did that male do to you? Wait, Original Cindy doesn't even wanna know. I'm goin' to kill him," Original Cindy immediately ranted as she entered the apartment and saw the look on Max's face. Original Cindy had in fact started to turn around and storm down the hall; fully intent on getting Logan. Max was up in a flash and grabbed her arm, then pulled her inside. She then did something that Cindy had never seen her do before; Max stuck her head out the doorway and surveyed the hallway, before quickly pulling it back inside and closing the door.

"Max? What the hell?" Cindy questioned sharply as Max returned to the couch and sat down again. Max had only realised what she had done whilst she was doing it, and there was no way of hiding it from her friend. She couldn't believe that she was getting so concerned with this dream, and the fact that the feelings of complete loss were still weighing heavily inside of her.

"Max, what's goin' on? What did Logan do to you this time?" Cindy asked in an aggressive manner, which Max could tell was being directed entirely at Logan.

"Logan didn't do anything wrong." Max said honestly, her big eyes shining with moisture up at Original Cindy, who didn't really believe what she was hearing.

"I'm gonna make us some coffee, and you are gonna tell Original Cindy what happened." Original Cindy walked into the kitchen and started to boil some water. Max sat for a while, comforted by the distracting presence of Cindy; she had returned to the position she was in before and was back to worrying about Zack coming to kill Logan.

"You betta start talkin', boo," Cindy threatened as she poured the drinks and started walking over to the couch. Max knew the best way to get through this was for Cindy to tell her she was being a complete idiot, and it was only a dream. Something she knew Cindy would do.

"Well… we were in bed, and I had this really bad dream about Zack coming in and shooting Logan. It was awful. There was nothing I could do, and Zack dragged me off with him, and Logan died." Max's voice was weak and sad as all the images from her dream continued to repeat themselves in her mind. Max slowly looked up to see what Original Cindy's reaction would be, and was surprised to see her eyes wide open, mouth hanging down, and the mugs in her hand going unnoticed as they steadily spilt their contents onto the floor at her feet. Cindy had been muted with Max's sentence. No, just the first five words 'Well… we were in bed'. She couldn't believe it. She quickly snapped out of her trance, and decided it was best not to address this first because of the earnest and pained expression on Max's face. Cindy put the half empty mugs down, and sat on the couch next to Max, placing a comforting arm around her.

"You know it was only a dream, boo," Cindy said reassuringly, squeezing her friend a little closer.

"I know. It was just so real. I keep seeing him dying in front of me. It's terrible," Max said weakly, as she briefly glanced at Cindy, and then looked out the window again. She was surprised to see that it was a perfectly clear night for a change, and she could actually see many stars in the sky. Original Cindy, however, wasn't paying any attention to the weather, as she was too busy debating with herself what to do with Max.

"So what're you doin' here? Don't you think it would be better if you were with Logan? You know, so you can realise that he isn't dead. Hell, even to protect him from this big brother of yours." Cindy was very close to slapping Max over the head for her stupidity, but instead she just stared at her blankly for a few minutes.

"So… You spent the last three days with Logan, huh?" Cindy eventually inquired, with a slightly victorious tone to her voice. Max looked at her slyly with a small and embarrassed grin on her face; she knew what was coming next.

"Um… yeah," Max admitted coyly. She was feeling better about herself, now that all the memories from the past few days had come flooding back.

"So what did you two get up to?" Cindy asked happily. The small smile on her face broke into a giant grin when she noticed Max's cheeks getting redder with each passing second. Max glanced at her again, this time with a more mischievous expression. Cindy leapt to her feet in excitement and pushed Max.

"You didn't! Did you?" Original Cindy was practically screaming at Max with enthusiasm. Max couldn't help but smile with her friend's reaction, and the way she was waiting with baited breath for some form of response. Max simply nodded, as her mouth uncontrollably parted into a huge smile and she let out a small giggle. It had only just dawned on her how exciting it all was. Max was beaming as she got up and took the now empty coffee mugs back into the kitchen; it appeared Original Cindy had knocked them over in her excitement.

"So when did this happen?" Cindy asked cheekily, and Max was beginning to wonder if her friend was more excited about this than she was as she saw the delirious expression on her face.

"Thursday afternoon…" Max said, trying to sound calm, and like it was no big deal.

"What have you been doing with the rest of your time? It's Saturday now," Cindy asked incredulously. Max came over and placed the coffee over Original Cindy's shoulder onto the table but didn't move away and spoke into her ear.

"Until this morning." She finished off her previous comment, smiling like an idiot. Original Cindy sat there dumbfounded with a very stunned expression on her face. Max laughed a little at her friend, then curled her legs up underneath her on the bed and began to sip her coffee. After a few minutes Original Cindy had recovered from the shock, and was observing Max with a small smile on her face. 

"Max. Why are you here and not with your sugah?" Cindy asked plainly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Max's smile faded quickly and her face tensed again.

"I told you. I had that dream," Max said in a small voice. Cindy observed her for a few more minutes, and when Max didn't seem to be doing anything about it, she knew she had to say something.

"Max, does Logan know you're here? I mean, you told him why you left didn't you? You didn't just run out of his place or anything?" Cindy asked cautiously, studying Max intently.

"Oh god," Max exclaimed in a panicked voice, as her eyes widened in realisation.

Logan had sat on the bed for a while, in denial with what had just happened. He couldn't believe she had just run. That was his greatest fear with their new-found intimacy; that she would find it too much and just run. He had thought they had gotten far past that stage, but apparently he was wrong. As he still lay on the bed, one question continued to run through his head. 'Why?' He thought over and over again, as he moved his hands across his face and rubbed his eyes a little. Logan had never been this confused before in his life, and he wasn't even sure if that's how he felt. It was a mix between emptiness and sheer shock. He studied his ceiling for a long while, before a defeated laugh broke out.

"W-Why is this happening." He pleaded with his ceiling, and after it gave no answer, he shook his head and stood up. Logan made his way through the house, suddenly realising how dark it was. He considered turning some lights on, but decided against it. At least in the dark he could pretend he wasn't alone. He made his way to the kitchen and got a drink; red cordial. Again he let out a bitter laugh and sighed deeply as he sipped the cool liquid. Logan walked over to Max's window and looked out at the night sky, which was amazingly clear. Clear enough that he could see a great deal of stars in the sky, which was a rarity, but one of his most favourite things. The irony stung at him, since he had always wished of lazily stargazing with Max, and just recently assumed he would be, since they were to be going away next weekend. The more he thought, the more depressed he became. So instead he flopped down on the couch, slightly amused he was still in his robe, and looked out at the stars. Logan was expecting to feel angry and upset, and was incredibly surprised that he didn't. Well, not as much as he anticipated to at least.

"Better to have loved and lost, than never loved at all," he proclaimed proudly to the night air. He had realised that the events of the past few days could not be quelled by Max's actions, when they were actions that defined Max as a person. Always hanging around, then shooting off at the last moment. Logan felt strangely confident that Max would be back soon. Why he wasn't too sure, but he just had a feeling.

"You know. You never actually told her you love her," Logan said to himself, since it was easy to speak with yourself when you were alone.

"Yeah, but come on. Look at what how we've been acting for the past five days," he reasoned with himself.

"You still didn't say anything." He stopped there, not only because he had made his point, but also the fact that his open thinking was showing such clear bias with sides. Logan began to think that he actually was losing his mind.

"And a mind is a terrible thing to waste." He smiled a little. He was most definitely losing it.

Max was heading back to Logan's apartment with a thousand different apologies running through her head. Cindy had helped Max realise that it was just a dream so there was nothing to worry about, and so Max wasn't worried about Zack coming to kill Logan anymore. All she was worried about now was if Logan was going to accept her back after the way she had just run out on him with no explanation. She rounded the corner and saw Fogle Towers, and immediately felt anxious. 'It's going to be okay, Max. Just tell him the truth, Logan's always accepted you for who you are.' Max was surprised at how positive her inner-consciousness was being for a change. She felt a little better as she approached the building. Looking up at Logan's apartment Max noticed there on the rooftop, moving smoothly around, was a dark figure clad in black, making their way with purpose toward Logan's skylight. The ease and fluidity of the character's motions were very disconcerting, since normal people usually shy away from running around the edge of the top of a skyscraper, at night, and with fierce winds blowing. Max's heart stopped dead and stomach dropped in pure fear as a chill ran through her body.

Logan was still sitting on the lounge, looking out the window at the stars in the sky, when he heard a noise coming from his roof. He moved to the skylight and stood in the shadows, expecting Max to slide down the rope that had just dropped through. The person slid smoothly and calmly to the floor, but Logan was pretty sure it wasn't Max by their build, but since it was dark he couldn't really tell.

"Max?" Logan questioned from the shadows. The figure froze momentarily before turning to Logan's voice.

"I am not Max," a male voice replied in a curt business-like tone. Logan's blood froze.

* * *


	4. A Formal Affair

Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel, I don't own anything.

Authors note: It has been a while hasn't it? Well for those of you who waited, just know that there is another chapter sitting here (my computer) waiting to be loaded, so that will be done, when I deem fit, which could be soon or far.

Story note: This and the next 2 chapters are really filler, fun filler, but filler nonetheless. Not to say they aren't enjoyable, well I had a bit of fun writing them. It's your decision what you think about it. Enjoy.

Special thanks: Marvel Milla, wonderful beta reader. Ta.

Chapter 4 – A Formal Affair

Logan stood stilted in the shadows, trying to slow the amazing speed of his thumping heart. The dark figure stood tall and erect, peering to where he had heard the voice coming from, trying to decipher Logan's movements in the shadows. Logan was at first petrified with the intruder when he discovered it wasn't Max, but after a small while he decided that he probably relied on Max too much for his protection. After all, he was walking again, and he had never felt better. Why shouldn't he be able to eject this unwelcome guest from his home?

"Who are you?" he asked bravely, suddenly realising he was still wearing only a robe. What happened next took Logan, and the trespasser by surprise.

The door exploded open, and at the sound they both looked around to see the two halves of the now broken door flying across the room before crashing into the opposing wall. 

"Logan!" came the pained cry of Max, with a flood of light from the corridor. Logan noticed for the briefest of moments a dark blur caught in the light before it merged with the blackness of the room. He realised that the prowler was in for a very unpleasant time. He happened to be standing by the light switch, and turned it on just in time to hear a muted grunt and then a dull thud. When the light caught up with the sound, he noticed Max rushing at him, her face upset and worried. She immediately wrapped her arms around him in an intense hug, her hands searching his body desperately for signs of injury. As Logan hugged her back he noticed the incredible heat and humidity radiating from her body, and as he looked down at her he noticed a thin sheen of sweat covering her face. It appeared as if Max's trip up to his apartment had been a hurried occurrence. 

"Logan… I thought… Zack…" Max whimpered slightly, as she buried her face deeper into his shoulder. Logan felt a swelling in his chest, for someone to care this much about him, and a small smile made its way to his face.

"Come on, Max. I'm alright," Logan said in a comforting voice as he gently eased her head back from his chest so he could look at her. When he saw her face he caught his breath. He had never seen anything so beautiful, yet so upset and almost lost. He gently stroked her cheek with his thumb, and continued to push a lock of hair behind her ear, and smiled at her warmly before bending down and stealing a quick kiss. These few acts cheered Max up quite a deal, and she smiled back at him, but was not willing to let go of him yet, as her head returned to the reassuring warmth of his chest. 

The polite clearing of a throat behind them interrupted their utopistic moment. Max snapped around whilst absently pushing Logan further away from the figure standing once more erect in the middle of the penthouse. Her fists were clenched threateningly by her sides, and it was quite evident from her stance that the person behind her was going to be protected by any means. The intruder observed this deadly package before him, and he knew that he didn't want to get on her bad side again. Max had only just noticed that the person in Logan's apartment wasn't Zack. In fact, he looked nothing like Zack, as he was far taller, and his build was incredibly athletic with extensively broad shoulders, but not bulking.

"Who are you?" Max inquired scathingly, almost in a growl, as her eyes narrowed and expression darkened fiercely. Both men in the room study Max intently for a few seconds, and each of them took a small step backwards. They were shocked at the sudden change in her, and the immense power she was radiating as she stared down the unknown figure. Logan could not help but smile a little, as such was the presence of Max, and the energy, that he was finding it hard not to be proud that she was his. The stranger decided to speak; otherwise he had a feeling this situation wouldn't turn out well for him.

"My deepest and most humble apologies for disturbing you, sir," he said with an incredible air of elegance and a slight bow, sweeping his arm out in front of him until it rested on his hip. Max and Logan stopped, and blinked widely, vaguely resembling goldfish. Max stepped back until she was in front of Logan, and then she leant back until her body was slightly resting on his, but her face was in line with Logan's, and she was still able to keep both eyes on the bowing stranger.

"Logan. What the hell? Why does he sound so funny?" Max couldn't hide the confusion on her face with the response they received, and she also couldn't place his accent. Logan chuckled slightly as he placed his hands on Max's waist, gently moving her to the side. He started to walk toward the man, and on his way he bent close and spoke in Max's ear.

"He's English, Max." Her mouth opened in a silent 'Oh', as Logan came to a stop at her side. All of them stood there for a few moments, studying one another and puzzled with the situation, until finally the intruder once more spoke.

"I must say, this is an awkward situation, is it not? Allow me to introduce myself. Lord Thomas Montgomery, at your service." He bowed once more, and waited patiently for Logan to introduce them. Max and Logan looked at other, completely taken aback.

"Lord?" they said together, looking from each other to their guest. Thomas smiled back at them warmly; this was about as much as Max could take.

"That's it. I'm getting him out of here. He's a complete whack job," Max said to Logan, as she once again took on an aggressive stance.

"Oh yes, the deliciously eclectic verbalisation of a young American." Logan couldn't help but laugh at this comment, and the twisted look on Max's face as she was riddled with bewilderment.

"Excuse me, but what are you doing in my house?" Logan asked politely, not feeling scared by this person anymore, and especially since Max was standing next to him defensively.

"I am dreadfully embarrassed with this whole situation," Thomas said, as he straightened once more and held himself in a very regale manner.

"You see, along with inheriting the title of Lord, I inherited an appalling amount of money." Logan nodded slightly, as he felt he knew where Thomas was coming from, even though he had a feeling that Thomas probably had a lot more money than he did.

"I've always been very interested in the delicacies of night time travel, and making ones way around in a stealth like state." As he was explaining how he would slip into high-rise or high security places, steal something, and then send it back to them, Max became distracted by the remarkable suit he appeared to be wearing. It seemed to be constantly changing shades of grey and dark, swallowing all light that came near. It was only a thin material, that was drawn extremely taut across his body, which Max could tell was incredibly fit, since all his muscles could be seen with the utmost detail. Then it dawned on her. She knew what it was he was wearing, and her mouth parted slightly in awe and appreciation, as it was something she had always wanted to get, but couldn't, because there was no way she could obtain anywhere near the amount of funds required for such extravagance.

"You've got a Reflex-Suit," Max suddenly said, interrupting a story he was telling about breaking into the White House. Thomas blinked suddenly, then looked at Max, a huge smile breaking across his face.

"Why yes, although I prefer to call it a Sneaking-Suit," he proclaimed proudly, and slightly puffed his chest. Logan was completely lost, and glanced between Max and Thomas a few times. Just as he was about to speak again, Max did.

"Where did you get it? I mean they're real expensive and stuff," Max asked. She was clearly very enthusiastic with the suit, which made Logan feel a little jealous, since she was paying so much attention to this thief from the night.

"Like I said. I have an absurd amount of money. Enough about me, however. Whose place is this that I have so rudely encroached upon?" Thomas inquired very politely, while easily steering the conversation in another direction. Max was astounded with the eloquence of his speech and the way he pronounced everything with such air. It was Logan's turn to speak now, and he did so with great vigour, trying to regain himself in front of Max. He had seen how she had kindly regarded Thomas as he started speaking about his suit, and it made something broil inside gently.

"I am Logan Cale, and this is my frien… this is Max." Logan said, with an embarrassed stumble as he pointed at Max. He still wasn't sure what he should be telling people about their relationship. Thomas took the sentence in stride and smiled warmly at Logan, before turning to Max, and sweeping up her hand and bending down to it.

"Max?" he asked, in an attempt for one of them to expand on just 'Max'.

"Guevera," Logan sputtered, becoming more aware of the way Max was looking at Thomas. It wasn't as if she was attracted to him or anything. It was just the look of admiration radiating from her beautiful eyes. Thomas bent and kissed the back of her hand he had been holding, which caused Max to blush slightly.

"Guevera? Not of the Greenwich Guevara's?" Thomas asked after a slight pause of consideration, still holding Max's hand. She looked over at Logan and gave him a full smile, unable to believe what she had just heard.

"Apparently." She laughed, pulling her hand from Thomas' grasp. Logan moved up to Max protectively, placing a hand on her elbow. She felt better immediately, as for some reason she had tensed up incredibly with the interaction between the Lord and herself. Logan also felt better when he moved closer to Max, as he felt the warmth still radiating from her body, and he could have sworn she seemed to relax with his proximity.

"Would you like a drink Lord Thomas?" Logan asked politely, not quite sure why he was inviting someone that had just broken into his house for a drink.

"Oh, god! Call me Tom, please. I can't stand all that Lord business." Max and Logan each breathed a sight of relief; they would have felt very stupid saying 'Lord Thomas' all the time.

They were sitting in the kitchen, all drinking red cordial after Max had gone for some and Tom saw it and decided to 'partake in a sup', as he put it. Tom telling them many interesting stories of the various places he had broken into over his life. Logan started to relax a lot more and enjoy himself when he discovered that the Lord was 53 years old, and had proclaimed his disinterest in the prospect of coupling with anyone. During a pleasant lull in the conversation, Max decided to broach the subject of the suit again, since she had been keenly interested in one for a long time. She lent forward and pressed a finger against the material on his wrist, and it felt like it came alive under her touch. Tom looked up at her and smiled.

"You like this suit don't you? Well it's my greatest possession, so you can't have it. Besides it's far too big for you," he said playfully. Max looked at him and smiled sweetly.

"Does it really help? I mean with mobility and everything," she questioned sincerely.

"More than you can imagine. It also makes moving around quieter, dissolves into dark areas more efficiently, it's completely waterproof, and can be worn in minus 30 degree temperatures." As he explained, Max's eyes opened wider in appreciation. This was the ultimate cat suit.

"Minus 30? Are you serious?" Max asked incredulously.

"Yes, minus 30 degrees Celsius my dear," Tom explained reassuringly.

"If I may intrude? Why did you select my apartment to break into tonight?" Logan suddenly asked, after a few moments of silence on his behalf.

"Intrude? My kind man, it is I who has intruded into your house, and as to why. It's quite simple. I've been in the area for a while, as I am in Seattle for a function, and I noticed that for the past three days, there have been no lights on in this apartment day or night. So when I see something like that, my general assumption is that there is no one there, and I felt like stretching my legs a little." Tom finished explaining, and was searching the faces of Max and Logan, attempting to evoke an explanation as to why no lights were on. Max and Logan shared an embarrassed glance, realising why no lights had gone on.

"Something came up… that resulted in the lights not being turned on." Max said, trying not to make things to obvious, but still trying to remind Logan what had happened. Tom noticed the silly expressions on Max and Logan's faces as they looked at each other. He couldn't believe the concentration of passion between the two sets of eyes in front of him.

"Well I've definitely outstayed my very unwelcome visit. Once again I must apologise for the inappropriate nature of my entry, and I beg of you not to inform the police." Tom interrupted the gaze between Max and Logan, and began to stand.

"Not at all. All the best people come in the way you did. Unannounced," Logan said, unable to stop himself from squeezing Max's shoulder, who turned to him and smiled coyly. Thomas turned to Logan and looked questioningly.

"That's how I met this one, her intentions identical to yours. Except she planned on keeping the stolen goods for reasons of commerce," Logan said playfully, as he patted Max on the shoulder.

"Really? My dear Max, we must talk more but not now, as I fear I have disturbed you long enough." With that, he started to head back to his rope still dangling through the skylight. Just as he reached up, and placed his hand around it, he turned and addressed Max and Logan, who had followed him.

"I have a smashing idea, if you are interested that is. You see, the reason I am in this city is because there is a function I am hosting in a few nights. If you two would like to come, I would be most delighted." Max and Logan looked at each other for a bit, not sure how to reply.

"It is a formal event, a ball if you will. There will be a lot of dancing and people in fancy clothes. Usually a terrible bore, but I am sure it would be a lot more interesting if you were to attend." Thomas had turned and placed his other hand on the rope, and started to pull himself up slightly. Logan made his decision, and moved behind Max so her could wrap his arms around her from behind, bringing them down across her shoulders to join his hands around her waist.

"Sounds great," Logan responded, breathing into Max's ear, which caused her to shiver, and she couldn't say anything for the next few seconds.

"Excellent. I'll send a man around in the morning with the invitations. Don't worry, I know your address," he said wryly, as he quickly hoisted himself out of the apartment, and once again Max and Logan were alone.

"What a nice guy," Logan said, looking up at the dark gap where his skylight was. Max still hadn't recovered from Logan blowing his hot breath in her ear.

"Do that again," Max said distantly.

"What? This?" Logan said, purposely dragging out each word as his steaming breath wisped across Max's ear. He could feel her shake, and a small giggle escaped her mouth.

"Look!" she exclaimed excitedly, grabbing the leg of her three quarter pants and pulling it up, exposing a limb completely covered in goose bumps. Logan smiled at Max's playfulness.

"But Max, that's your right leg, and I blew in your left ear." Max eyed him with a mischievous look on her face.

"Okay then, this ear," she said, happily turning her head so Logan could breath into her right ear this time. Logan laughed and shook his head slightly.

"If you say so." He bent down, and blew hot breath into Max's ear, gently grazing his lips against her soft lobe. This had an even greater effect on Max. She shook greatly, and involuntary pulled her head down between her shoulders, making a noise somewhere between a laugh and a giggle.

"Ha, look!" Max proclaimed again, this time pulling up the pants on her left leg, to reveal a shin and calf muscles crowded with little bumps.

"I'm sure that could be useful at some stage," Logan said benevolently, grinning at Max.

They stood there for a while, Logan behind Max, arms still wrapped around her, and Max with her arms on his, holding them in place. Logan then noticed the remnants of his once fine redwood door.

"Coming or going. You just love to break something, don't you?" Logan said jokingly, as he released Max and made his way over to the pieces of door on the ground. He picked up a half and placed it in the doorway, laughing at the absurdity of having a door that was only 3 feet tall, and resting against the doorframe to stay in place.

"Ah well, nothing I can do about it now. I think as penance, you need to stay and protect me in case some of the nasty elements decide to jump over my door."

"If I must," Max replied, and then she turned and headed over to her window, and out of Logan's sight. Logan walked into the room and saw Max standing there, thinking intently. Instead of bothering her, he took a place on the couch, and just enjoyed the magnificent view of his raven haired beauty reflected under the silver light of the stars.

"Max, why did you call out Zack's name when you first got in here?" It had only just occurred to Logan that she had said her brother's name. Max turned and looked at him, he could see the anguish on her face, as her big eyes looked down at him.

"Logan, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to run out on you. I just…" Max trailed off, looking back out the window, and Logan had a sudden sinking feeling.

"You just couldn't stand the closeness? So you ran away?" He didn't want to finish that statement, but he needed to know. Max snapped around with Logan's questions.

"No, it's not that. I love that…I just had a bad dream." 'Okay, you said the big word, just keep speaking and he might not notice you slipped up.' Max became hot and nervous, with her Freudian slip.

"You see, when we were in bed, I fell asleep, and I had this dream where Zack came in and killed you. It was so terrible, Logan. And then when I woke up, it was exactly the same as how the dream started, so I panicked and had to leave. It was just too familiar, and I expected him to come crashing through your door at any second and shoot you for real." Logan hadn't said anything, and was sitting there blankly, almost stunned.

"And then when I was coming over tonight I saw Tom on the roof, and thought it was Zack coming to kill you. That's why I said his name. I still thought it was him until Tom started speaking." Max had ranted on for quite some time, and was feeling a little hopeful that Logan might not have noticed what she said earlier. When she looked at him, however, she knew that was the only word he had heard, and everything else had just been meaningless background sound. Max nervously toed the ground behind her with one foot, as she bit her lower lip.

"Logan?" She probed.

"Y-You… love it?" 'Oh god, he did hear it.'

"Umm… yeah, you know? Like I love food and stuff." She didn't want to say that, but she couldn't stand the pressure of the moment. Logan knew however, so he smiled at her calmly.

"Right." Logan stood slowly and made his way over to Max, stopping a few feet in front of her.

"What now, Max?" Logan questioned, with arms open, palm side up, in front of Max. Max looked at him nervously, shifting her weight slightly.

"Um… you want a drink?" Max asked coyly.

"Yeah. I do," Logan replied warmly, and together they headed for the kitchen.


	5. And Then There Were Two

Disclaimer: Dark Angel and all it's affiliated stuff (yes stuff, that is a technical term and is used often in legal documents) does not belong to me. So I don't claim profit or… stuff.

Authors note: Told you I would get this chapter up quickly, and guess what? The next chapter is already written as well. So again depending on my mood, and other factors, the next chapter could be up very soon, but likely not, since I get distracted easily these days.

Story note: This chapter is 100 percent Logan and Max, I don't think I've done anything like that before. I mean 100 percent (well I'm pretty sure) since it doesn't hold any reference to anything else, at all. Therefore I can't believe that it is so long, but it is, and quite a deal of fun too. I think anyway. I hope you do as well. Enjoy.

Special thanks: Magical Milla the marvellous beta reader.

Chapter 5 – And Then There Were Two

Logan and Max had made their way into the kitchen, and resumed their glasses of red cordial. Max was sitting on the centre island and Logan was leaning against the bench, looking at her intently with a somewhat glazed but warm look on his face. As Max put her empty glass down on the table she noticed a slight residue on it from her hand. Realisation dawned on her that getting up to the penthouse in this building in under a minute would cause even an X-5 to sweat. Logan yawned quite audibly, covering his mouth in the process. He couldn't believe he was tired after sleeping all day, but here it was, almost Sunday, and he felt like crawling back into bed again. Max looked up when she heard Logan yawning, and studied him intently. He still hadn't said anything about her abrupt departure before, and it was starting to worry her.

"I'm really sorry about leaving you and not saying anything Logan. I didn't mean to, I just panicked." Max looked at him pleadingly.

"Max, I don't really mind. I mean, at first I was a little upset and a bit dejected, but after some time to think things over, I knew you'd come back. So I didn't really worry any more," Logan said reassuringly, as he straightened from his slouch against the bench, and placed his empty glass on it.

"But, I just ran out on you," Max said again, getting confused with the ease Logan was taking this. She knew if he tried to pull a stunt like that on her, she wouldn't speak to him for about a week.

"Really Max, it's alright. I just figured you'd want some space, but now I feel even better since that wasn't even the reason you left." He looked at her for a moment with a small smirk of confidence, considering the idea of bringing up what she had said about that part, but decided against it.

"But don't do it again… or I'll kick your ass. And if that fails, just poison a meal," Logan said lightly after a slight pause, doing his best to imitate Max. Max smiled and laughed a little at his impersonation.

"I would like to see you try and kick my ass Logan. Could be fun." Max quipped, which caused Logan to chuckle slightly.

"Anyway, you just figured I'd come back? What makes you so sure?" Max asked playfully.

"Well, most probably for my sparkling conversation, or all the food I give you, and just recently I've noticed you have obtained quite an addiction for my red cordial." Logan smiled, as he counted off the reasons with his fingers. Max knew he had her there, so didn't bother responding. She also knew she was becoming quite addicted to the red stuff, but since it wasn't doing any harm, and tasted so good, she figured it was a welcome change in her life. It also served as a pleasant reminder of how all of this happened, and why she was sitting here at Logan's, in the middle of the night, without the slightest intention of 'having to blaze'. Logan yawned again, and stretched a little, and it was then Max noticed he was still in his robe.

"So this is what you really do, huh? Sleep all day, then walk around in your pyjamas for the rest of the time?" Max teased him. Logan looked at her and smiled when he realised that he wasn't actually wearing any pj's, as he had thrown the robe on straight after his shower, and that was how he had stayed since then.

"Anyway, I need to get to bed. We don't all survive with four hours of sleep a week," Logan said, as he started walking out of the kitchen, and around the corner. Max sat nervously on the counter top, not sure if she was supposed to be going with him, or if he wanted to be alone. Just as she was considering the prospect of going home, since it would be best that way, Logan's head popped around the corner.

"You coming? You are more than welcome," Logan said in a tired but warm voice, which made Max practically pop. She gracefully slid off the bench and walked calmly over to Logan, trying desperately not to show her eagerness.

"I need a shower Logan," Max stated as they walked down the hall toward Logan's room.

"That's fine. You can just… ugh." They had just turned into Logan's room, and it was still a complete mess. Logan let out a big sigh.

"Oh, well you have a shower, I'll clean this up. If you want your clothes cleaned just chuck them out here," Logan said, as he made his way to the bed and started stripping it, which was a fairly menial task since most of it had already been done. The bed was unclothed and Logan sat on the stained mattress waiting for Max to throw her clothes out. 'Looks like I have an excuse to get a new mattress now,' Logan thought tiredly, standing up from his bed, which squeaked noisily.

"Her you go," Max said loudly from behind the door, as a naked arm extended through a crack in the door, holding a screwed up bunch of clothes. Logan grabbed the bedclothes, then walked over and grabbed Max's stuff and put it on top. As he was making his way over to the laundry chute he noticed that Max's clothes were right in front of his face and an idea came to mind. Making a slight detour to his study, Logan inspected Max's clothes for a bit, jotted down some quick figures, and then continued on his way to dump the clothes, smiling with his wonderfully sneaky plan.

Max was enjoying the warmth of the shower, grinning like an idiot because of her previous experience in that same spot earlier in the day, and washing herself quicker than she ever had before. When she emerged from the shower a few minutes later, she saw Logan's bed completely bare, except for a candle sitting on a piece of paper. She had the same robe wrapped around her as she did that morning, and walked over to the bed to discover Logan had left her a note. '_Bed is ruined. Guest room_' was all it said, so Max headed in that direction. When she got to the guest room, she noticed the door was closed, and there was another note stuck to it. Max picked it up and laughed quietly.

Rules of this house 

_Rule 1 – all rules must be obeyed_

Rule 2 – no clothes allowed in bed 

Max turned the note over, and laughed a little more when she noticed that was all there was on it. 'Good thing,' Max thought, smiling somewhat triumphantly. She eased into the inky darkness of the room, and saw the lump that was Logan in the bed. She noticed that his breathing was easy and controlled, but sounded a little too controlled to be asleep just yet. Logan observed Max with half-open eyes as she made her way over to the chair he had his robe thrown over. Max had her back to Logan and loosened the soft cloth belt that held the robe together, and then she noticed that Logan's breathing pattern had changed. 'He's watching. This could be interesting,' Max thought mischievously, as she stopped halfway through the knot, which now hung loose around her waist. Max made her way over to the windows, and with each step the top of the robe slipped further and further apart, the bottom still held together slackly by the belt. When she got to the window, she yanked on a dangling chord and the blinds flew open, drowning the room in a beautiful silver glow from the stars. As she turned back to the chair, Max heard an intake of breath. Logan couldn't believe the sight before him. Max was moving gracefully in the soft white light from the window, and her skin shined startlingly. He noticed the robe only now sitting insecurely around Max's form. The front had spilt apart greatly, exposing her collarbone all the way to her navel, creating a deep 'v' of perfectly unblemished skin. Logan was forced to roll onto his side. Max moved back to the chair, and was once again facing away from Logan. She grabbed the belt and untied it completely, throwing the sashes out to her side, causing the robe to billow dramatically. She heard another intake of breath, and then nothing. It appeared Logan was holding himself in anticipation, and had forgotten how to use his lungs. Max grinned wildly, and she threw her head back, causing her brown curls to cascade over the robe. Shrugging slightly, she let the robe start to fall from her shoulders, and slide down her back. Logan made a small whimpering sound, which resulted in Max's smile doubling. In a final muffled rustle and a dull thud, the robe hit the floor in a pool around Max's feet. She stood for a moment, with her back still to Logan and peered out the window; the light defining all the wondrous curves and muscles on her body. Logan decided he liked starlight. Max turned away from Logan's eyes and walked around to the free side of the bed, which Logan had his back to, since it was opposite the window. He knew he couldn't turn over now just to see Max get in, so he waited patiently for the magical sensation that came with sharing a bed with someone. Max breezily slipped in between the covers, and felt a refreshing shiver as the cool, crisp sheets cocooned her warm skin. Max glanced over and noticed Logan's uncovered shoulder shining in the light and couldn't help but extend her hand and brush her fingers lightly over it.

"Glad you decided to join me," Logan mumbled, and Max nearly laughed. He was very obviously trying to sound like he had just been asleep. Max was tempted to slide over and wrap her arms around Logan, but before she did, she had to ask him something.

"So what's with these rules?" she asked suspiciously, a small laugh belying the seriousness of the question.

"I don't make them, I just stick by them," Logan replied, putting on a slight 'little missy', tone. Max stared at his shoulder for a few seconds in amused silence.

"Logan. This is your place. You make the rules," Max said confidently.

"Oh yeah, but still… rules are rules. There's not much we can do about it, especially not now it's been officially written down," Logan said, very obviously resigning himself to the fact that they just had to stick by the rules.

"Fine by me," Max stated, as she finally closed the distance that had been gnawing at her ever since she got in the bed. Logan felt a small arm slipping under his neck and wrap itself around his chest, and then another arm resting at the bottom half of his rib cage. He felt and heard Max moving closer to him, as her hand gently travelled across his stomach, only for her fingers to wiggle themselves between his waist and the bed, effectively jamming them in place. Then in one last movement, Max brought her entire body in contact with as much of his as she could manage. A long resounding 'Mmmmm' filled the room from both of them.

"That's nice," Logan said dreamily, as he placed his arms over the top of Max's, just so he could, at least, hold her a little bit.

"Yeah," Max said almost breathlessly. The amazing sensation of skin on skin was completely spellbinding, and totally unbelievable. 'Wow, this cuddling thing is way better than I thought,' Max told herself, as a huge smile started to break across her face. There was a comfortable silence for a while, each of them kindly regarding the situation they were in, and how they had come to be there.

"Max. Can I ask you something? Logan inquired kindly.

"Shoot," Max replied full of spunk.

"It's kind of personal," Logan probed a little more.

"Well we're lying in bed together, naked. I'm not sure you can get more personal than that," Max replied, rubbing her hand across his chest a little to make her point, but mainly because she wanted an excuse to. Logan smiled as he felt her hand gliding back and forth across his chest, and figured it would probably be all right to talk with Max about what was on his mind.

"You know how you were in heat?" he asked slowly and carefully. Even though Max didn't move a muscle, he could feel her withdrawing, which made him cringe a little.

"Yeah." Her voice had fallen quite a bit, but as she spoke she seemed to grab him tighter, as if hanging on.

"How long were you… ah… under the influence?" Max couldn't help but smile with his question, since it wasn't at all what she expected, and it was also the funniest way she had ever heard it referred to.

"Why? Damaging your male ego or something?" She played, but nonetheless pulled him tighter; just to show she was joking. Without knowing it she had hit the nail right on the head with that question, and Logan felt his cheeks beginning to burn slightly.

"No. I was just… curious, you know," Logan said clumsily, his voice sounding quite desperate.

"Only about the first hour, if that," Max said, since it was the truth, and Logan needed the reassurance. He immediately sparked up and pulled Max's arms around him closer, and then realised if this went on any further he wouldn't be able to breathe.

"So how come it lasted for well over a day?" Logan asked playfully. Max bent in and kissed his shoulder before replying.

"Just enjoying myself," Max replied simply.

"That's good," Logan said, sounding very pleased with himself.

After five minutes of being in that position, Logan suddenly realised something.

"Max, this isn't right," he said quickly. Max almost crushed his lung in her surprise and she was upset with what he said.

"Why not?" she implored sadly.

"Well, look at us. It's the wrong way around, the girl is supposed to be the on the inside." Max quickly realised what was going on, and relaxed greatly.

"I don't know Logan. I do the ass kicking, and you do the cooking. Maybe this is right?" Max teased, and then Logan bit her arm playfully. After another few moments of silence, Logan spoke again.

"Nope, sorry. I can't do this." And in under a second, managed to turn himself and Max over, so he was behind her, and she was wrapped in his strong arms.

"That's better," he said triumphantly, squeezing Max warmly.

"Yeah," Max said, once again in a complete daze. She couldn't believe how much better this felt than before. Logan had his eyes open, drinking in the sight in front of him, and then he noticed something and a wicked idea sprang to mind. He lent in, and gently started to nibble on Max's ear, in the process breathing heavily into it. Almost instantly he felt her opposite leg cover in tiny bumps, as she giggled uncontrollably and tried – but not too hard – to squirm away from him.

"Hey stop that. It tickles!" Max squeaked, harmlessly hitting Logan and starting to move away from him. When he noticed this, he stopped very quickly.

"Okay, okay. Sorry. Friends." Max turned to look at his beautiful face framed by the starlight and couldn't help but go a little gooey.

"Yeah," she said, allowing him to draw her back to his chest.

"Always," she whispered in the softest of voices, which Logan didn't really hear, but that was alright because he wasn't supposed to. Logan was looking down at the back of the head of this angel in his arms, smiling like an idiot, but unable to help himself. He gently started to caress her hair, to which Max murmured appreciatively, and then brought his other arm up to her neck, which he also began to caress. Max was in heaven as Logan's strong fingers continued to massage her neck and run lovingly through her hair. Suddenly, Logan stopped what he was doing, and with a massive grin on his face, used his hands to pin Max's head in place on the pillow.

"What the…? Max had almost gotten out, until Logan's tongue plunged straight into her ear. Max screamed uncontrollably, which would have worried Logan if she weren't so busy trying not to lose her lungs from the hysterical fits of laughter that wracked her body. Max tried to threaten him, but all she could do was scream and laugh. So she rolled over and away from him, but noticed that he followed right along, still driving her insane with his tongue in her ear. Max was on her back by now, with Logan lying halfway across her, still grasping her head and tickling her uncontrollably with his tongue. She tried pushing him off but that wasn't really working, so she grabbed two handfuls of hair and tried pulling his tongue out of ear that way, but to no avail. Losing the fighting battle for oxygen, Max finally just shoved Logan off her, sending him flying off the bed and onto the floor. Max sat up, breathing heavily, and looked over the side of the bed. There on the floor in a tangle of his own limbs was Logan, laughing himself into near hysteria. As Max looked at him, the stern expression on her face started to slide quickly, and she began to laugh along with him. After all, it was really quite funny what had just happened. Logan eventually crawled back into bed, slipping over Max, and back to his side where he regathered her in his arms. Max turned her head and eyed him suspiciously.

"Once was funny. Do it again and you go out the window," Max threatened him, but had a very hard time of sounding firm because of the goofy and innocent look on Logan's face.

"Fine," Logan said, kissing her neck dangerously close to her ear. Max shivered a little, but didn't mind, since it felt so nice.

"Anyway, I thought you were tired?" Max asked casually. Logan thought for a moment; he had been tired, but as he headed toward the bedroom, excitement quickly replaced all his desires to sleep.

"Nope. Just said I needed to get to bed," Logan replied mischievously.

"Oh really?" Max asked, as she rolled onto her back, still in Logan's arms, but now able to look directly into his eyes.

"Really." He smiled down at her warmly, whilst drawing circles with his index finger around her bellybutton.

"What are you doing Logan?" Max asked in a sultry voice.

"Oh nothing," Logan replied, with pursed lips, as he glanced around the room a few times; pretending that he was in fact not doing anything. Max glimpsed up at him and smiled, then ran her hand from his elbow along his arm until it reached his neck.

"Good," she said quietly, just before dragging Logan on top of her, and into a hungry kiss.


	6. A Visit To The Track

Disclaimer: The usual. Own nothing, no money from this, Fox et al.

Author note: This is the last of the backlog of chapters; so getting the next one up may take a while.

Story note: This chapter borrows heavily from Red Cordial, so if you are confused about some aspects, read it first.

Special thanks: Master Milla, lord of the betas. Those of you that took the time to review, it warms my soul.

Chapter 6 – A Visit To The Track

No matter how Logan was acting and playing around before, there was no way he was going to be moving now. Lying flat on his stomach with a tangle of sheets around his body and face squashed awkwardly into his pillow, he was well and truly asleep. It became clear to Max that Logan had become used to sleeping in his bed alone, because since he had fallen asleep he had migrated across to the middle of the bed. She didn't mind, as it just meant he would be closer to her, and as long as his strong arm curled around her waist, she was happy to leave the sleeping situation like this for future endeavours. As it were, Logan had been asleep for almost an hour, and Max had been more than happy to lay there with him and listen to his steady breathing and the occasional pleased mumble. Now, however, a mix of quiet excitement and Manticore genetics had her beginning to fidget. Deciding not to wake Logan - even though it would probably take the building falling down - she got out of bed to walk around the apartment for a bit, since she wanted to be there when Logan woke up. Max gently slid Logan's arm from around her to a sleepily muffled protest, slipped out of bed and headed for the robes still hanging limp over the chair. Standing there in a quandary for a while, Max finally chose to wear the robe Logan had been wearing yesterday. She was immediately rewarded as she hung the over-sized cloth around her shoulders. As Logan's scent surrounded her, Max quietly made her way out of the bedroom and toward the kitchen.

"First things first," she whispered to herself as she pulled the red cordial from the fridge, continually surprised that no matter how much she seemed to drink, the container was always full. Happy that it was obviously Logan's fault she was addicted to it, she began to casually stroll around the apartment, finally coming to a stop at her window. It was early morning and the stars were beginning to fade as the gentle orange burn crept further into the black-blue sky. Max peered down into the streets below and noticed that they and their inhabitants were still swathed in a blanket of darkness, and probably would be for quite a while; funny how being up high changed your perspective. Max stood there for another fifteen minutes or so, waiting until the beams of light struck her face, and then she returned her glass to the kitchen and paused, momentarily considering attempting to make some form of food. After a while, and not being able to locate any peanut butter or bread, Max gave up on the idea, since any plans of actually cooking would most likely result in some melting or burning, and it probably wouldn't be the food. She headed to Logan's computer room and noticed her bag still sitting on the floor from when they had returned from hospital, so she picked it up and started to rifle through it; assuring herself that there would be some form of food substance at hand. Coming across a jumper that was balled up, she paused her hunt and unravelled it.

"Oh." Her eyes grew wide and a sudden shot of mischievous glee hit her, as she held the camera in hand. Wasting no further time with the scavenging, she quickly dumped the bag on the floor and headed to Logan's computer. 'Poor baby, I've been keeping your master from you for a while, haven't I?' Max thought as she wiggled the mouse a bit and waited for the screens to come to life. After getting through the password - what luck, it was her name - she was bombarded with little flashing alerts. Apparently while Eyes Only was preoccupied, the rest of the world wasn't. Not really interested for the moment and assuming they could wait just a little bit longer, she ignored them and plugged the camera in. A few seconds later she was staring with a giant grin on her face at all the images of her and Logan. Picking the pictures she liked - all of them that were not guns - she printed off a few copies, and slipped them in a folder, which she then quickly hid. Max was unplugging the camera when she realised that Logan was still asleep, and she had a camera with her. Running excitedly on tiptoes toward the guest room, Max was going over all the angles and specific lighting she was going to use to snap up some nice photos. When she got to the room she was very pleased to see that Logan was now laying on his back, with his arm extended into the space Max had been, with his fingers outstretched. It looked like he was feeling for her when his unconscious mind fell further into fatigue and gave up mid-search. Max was pleased to see this, and also the fact that the sheet had slipped and was now only covering him from waist down, which was perfect for her since she wouldn't now have to rearrange it. Max raised the camera and took a photo straight away just in case he decided to move. He didn't, so she became a little braver and moved around to the other side of the bed, by the window, and moved in closer, taking a photo lower down to capture his profile. After snapping up a few more from various places around the bed, she realised there was still one missing. So carefully and as delicately as she could, she stepped up on the bed, and over Logan, with her feet on either side of his hips, and she took another photo. Content with the amount she had, she quickly left the room and printed them off as well, again sticking them in her folder, which was once more hidden discreetly among the files in Logan's computer room, and ready to be retrieved quickly when she was leaving.

Bling stood nervously in the lift, trying to convince himself that Logan would have been okay without him for four days. Unavoidable circumstances had led to him being without phone or any means to contact Logan, and since that was the case he most certainly did not have time to drop in for his usual morning visits. Logan had been decreasing the number of workout sessions per week since he had started walking again, so Bling assumed Logan wouldn't have noticed that much. As the elevator doors opened a sudden dread hit him. In his mixed up past few days, Bling had entirely forgotten about Logan's little trip to the hospital, and then the reason he was there.

_"So what happened?" Bling questioned, as Logan lay in the hospital bed, a dark look coming across his face._

_"My legs have stopped working. I fell," Logan replied shortly, his voice full of bitterness and an angry look on his face._

_"It's going to be okay Logan." Bling tried to reassure him, looking carefully over his friend, now understanding the nurse's questions earlier._

_"Yeah. Whatever," was the reply he received, and again it was bitter and angry. Bling still had the feeling that it would have been a lot bitterer and angry if Max was lying asleep curled up next to Logan, with her arm around his trunk protectively._

Taking a deep breath, a now concerned Bling noticed that the door was all of three feet high, snapped in half neatly and leaning haphazardly against the frame. He left the lift and approached the entrance to Logan's apartment.

Max had been sitting in the kitchen, torturing herself by leafing through the numerous cookbooks Logan had, when she heard the lift whirring into life. When she heard it stopping and the doors opening on her floor, she pricked her ears to determine who was coming; remembering Logan's penance for breaking his door in half. After the first footfall Max knew it was Bling, so she relaxed and then quickly went and grabbed her bag from Logan's computer room, then hurriedly made her way down to the guest room.

"Logan," Max said quietly, as she prodded the inanimate lump on the bed.

"Logan." She tried again, this time stabbing him a little harder with her finger. Just as she was about to poke him again, Logan's hand grabbed hers.

"Any harder and you'll puncture a lung," he said sleepily, rolling over to face Max, arm sweeping through the air until it landed around her shoulders. He started to pull her down onto the bed and into a hug.

"Morning. Sleep well?" he asked, eyes finally fluttering open to look warmly at Max. She immediately fell into his warm embrace, her back sinking into the warmth of his chest, with a silly smile on her face.

"Nope," Max eventually replied playfully, wriggling in a little closer.

"Why not? My bed not good enough for you?" Logan responded, feigning hurt. Max squirmed around a little more until she could see Logan's face again, and into his intense gaze.

"I slept all day yesterday," she pointed out. Logan looked at her and smiled smugly.

"Yeah I suppose I did tire you all out. Didn't I?" he said, joking proudly, punctuated with a soft kiss on Max's forehead. Max had just moved to nuzzling Logan's neck when she heard the pathetic excuse for a door sliding on the wooden floor, and remembered why she had come in and woken Logan in the first place.

"Bling's here. I'm going to hide," Max said as she jumped out of Logan's arms and off the bed, shoving her bag underneath.

"Why?" Logan asked, clearly confused as he began to sit up in bed.

"I thought you might want to tell him," Max said, a slight smirk on her face, and as Logan picked up on what she was talking about, the smirk spread to his face too. As Max got to the door, Logan got out of bed and headed to the remaining robe. She stopped and stared at Logan making his naked way around the room.

"Hey, shouldn't you be hiding?" Logan asked, snapping Max from her dazed stare. She smiled goofily and went out the door, still watching Logan over her shoulder as he donned the robe. 

Bling walked quickly into the eerily quiet apartment, trying to decide where to check for Logan first. He made his way by the computer room and noticed that all the screens were blank, so decided to check Logan's room. 

Max found it wasn't hard to hide in a place that, thanks to the design, was practically perpetual corners, as she stealthily followed Bling around the apartment from when he first entered. Max fought very hard to hide a burst of laughter as she saw Logan wheeling into the hallway with an uncomfortable and tired look on his face. When she noticed he was only using one arm to wheel the chair – making it a very slow and weaving process – she had to practically stick her whole hand in her mouth to keep quiet.

"God, Logan, I'm so sorry," Bling said, quickly making his way around to the back of the chair to push Logan down the hall.

"Oh, hey Bling," Logan said slightly wincing as he turned around, and sounding dazed and confused.

"Logan. What happened?" Bling asked cautiously as they came into the kitchen.

"Well, I was released on Thursday, and since then I've been making my way around here. I just had a shower that lasted 3 hours. You'd be surprised how much you use your arms when your legs don't work," Logan said, almost courageously, as he wheeled – again with one arm – to the counter and attempted to prepare some coffee. Bling couldn't believe what he was hearing, and started to make the coffee for Logan; desperately trying to make up for what happened.

"What about Max? I thought she'd help you out a little," Bling asked, since he had expected Max to take care of Logan, as she seemed to most of the time.

"Oh, Max," Logan said quietly, but with a slightly defeated laugh as his shoulder sunk considerably.

"You know how you were always telling me to tell her how I felt?" Bling looked at him and nodded hopefully.

"Well I did, on Thursday, and she then told me that we 'weren't like that'. And that I could have been her father, and it was gross. And to never try and contact her again, said I was sick." Bling dropped the mug in his hand. They both stared at it for a while, until Logan began speaking again.

"So you could say, that didn't go too well," Logan said, slowly shaking his head and continuing to stare at the fragments of china mixed with black steamy liquid, still slowly spinning on the floor. Bling bent down to start cleaning it up, completely lost for words, since everything he had been sure of for Logan was wrong, and it wasn't him paying for it, it was Logan, which made it even worse. As Bling was wiping the mess up, Logan heard a muffled noise, and a little bit of scuffling. He looked to where the sound was coming from and saw through a tiny crack Max doubled over in fits of laughter, unable to keep a steady footing and so was running into the walls.

"What was that?" Bling asked quickly, as he stood up and looked in the direction of the noise.

"Oh that? Probably rats. Some big ones have moved in and I reckon they know I can't chase them out, because they just sit there looking at me, eating my food." Logan's voice had again returned to the pathetic, yet slightly courageous tone of before.

"Jesus, Logan. I'm so sorry; I don't know what to say. I'm really, really sorry." Bling was completely sunk, he had no idea how he was going to make this situation better for his boss and good friend, and it was just too terrible a circumstance to imagine. Bling hunched over, resting on the countertop and rubbed his eyes slowly. It was about this time Logan thought his game had gone long enough.

"Don't worry, Bling, I'm fine," Logan said reassuringly as he patted the big man's shoulder. It took a while for Bling to register the fact that Logan was patting him on the shoulder. Bling slowly lowered his hand from his face to see Logan standing fully erect in front of him, with a smile on his face.

"Sorry about that Bling," Logan said. Bling's jaw hit the countertop. With perfect timing as always, Max sprang into the room, and before either of the men in the kitchen could register her presence, they heard a faint click.

"Great picture, Bling," Max said triumphantly as she held the camera in her hand.

"What… you?" Bling was having a very difficult time coming to terms with what he saw. Logan then turned to Max and beckoned her closer. She bounded over towards Logan, and when she was a few feet away, she leapt into his waiting arms. Logan held her high and spun around a few times, doing any tissue commercial proud, before finally pulling her to him and into a warm kiss. Bling's jaw slipped from the counter to the floor with a resounding thud. Max leant back from Logan, but still in his arms, with a broad smile on her face.

"Say cheese," she proclaimed happily, as she once again raised the camera and took another picture of Bling in his state of absolute shock. Logan gradually let Max slip from his arms, allowing her to return the camera, and giving him some time to reassure Bling.

"It's alright Bling, you can relax now," Logan said haughtily, as he once again patted Bling on the shoulder, trying to pull him from his stupor.

"Y-you… why I…" Bling stuttered and mumbled for a few minutes, with Logan happily watching and nodding occasionally. Max had returned and poured three cups of coffee, then hopped up and sat on the counter, stroking Logan's hand with her foot occasionally. Bling had recovered mostly and was drinking the brew in his hand as he eyed Logan and Max suspiciously. Logan dropped a spoon, and bent to pick it up. Bling's eyes bulged when he noticed that Logan did not bend at the middle, but at the knees, keeping his torso perfectly straight as he bobbed down into a deep squat, recovered his spoon, then straightening up instantly.

"Logan, since when have your legs worked that well?" Bling asked, clearly amazed at the little effort Logan used to complete his action.

"Since Thursday," Logan replied, suddenly realising that he had full use of his legs again, and becoming even happier.

"Well, we are going need to get some extra leg work in now that you can use them again," Bling said seriously, putting his empty cup onto the counter next to Max.

"I have a better idea," Logan said, looking at Bling with purpose, and then going over to the cupboard and getting a jar of peanut butter, which he gave to Max.

Twenty minutes later, Bling and Logan were standing on the little used, but well-kept running track. Max was sitting happily in the stand with a fresh loaf of bread and the peanut butter, smearing slices with great gusto, and then devouring them.

"Okay Max. We're ready," Logan shouted over to Max, who, momentarily distracted from her food, stood up and walked to the edge of the track. Logan laughed when he noticed the small mark of peanut butter on the side of her face. Max raised her arm into the air.

"Ready! Set!"

"Max," Logan interrupted her.

"What?" She sounded fairly exasperated, clearly wanting to get back to her food.

"You've got a little something just here," Logan said, wiping an imaginary smear of peanut butter from his face. Max brushed her hand over her face, got the offending smudge on a finger, and then licked it.

"Is that better?" she asked, giving Logan a twisted expression.

"Much," he replied, smiling and chortling a slight.

"Okay. Ready! Set!" Max paused a little, for affect and to see both Logan and Bling moving anxiously on the line.

"Go!" Bling and Logan exploded from the line, shooting down the track. Max stood and watched intently, concentrating on their movements. Bling knew he wasn't really a good sprinter, but thought this would be a bit easy since Logan had spent the past six months of his life wheelchair-bound. He was rudely proven wrong, as Logan powered up beside him, turned and smiled at him a little, and then shot off down the track.

Max watched them walking back down the track toward her, both of them sweating profusely from their exertions, but still smiling madly. She stood there with her hip cocked, and the almost empty bag of bread hanging by her side, eyeing the two as they approached.

"Well at least now we can do your workouts in the fresh city air," Bling jested as they came closer to Max. Logan was still buzzing from the run and just nodded madly, too caught up in his thoughts to pay any real attention to what Bling had to say.

"So what do you think of that Max?" Logan asked proudly as he and Bling finally reached her.

"Not bad, I suppose an eleven-twenty ain't too bad for you," Max said playfully, knowing such statements wouldn't easily quash the mood Logan was in.

"Not bad? Do you want a race or something?" he questioned somewhat defensively. Max merely rolled her eyes and headed back to the stand. Bling could see Logan about to retort in an attempt to regain some personal merit, so he placed his hand on his shoulder to silence him.

"Umm… you're not serious? Genetically engineered perfection, remember?" Max heard the statement that sounded very distinctly like a quote, so she turned and smiled at Logan.

"Genetically engineered perfection, huh?" Her smile got bigger and she batted her eyelashes a little. Logan turned to Bling and gave him a stern look, before turning to smile back at Max, embarrassed. Lucky for the run, otherwise the burning in his cheeks would have been obvious.

Max sat down to finish off the rest of the bread when she heard a car pulling up outside the stadium, and a door opening and closing. She moved up to the higher seats in the bleachers, until she saw a figure in a large overcoat walking underneath her and toward the field. She landed silently and effortlessly behind him, following him out to where Logan and Bling were doing stretches.

"Are you Logan Cale?" the man asked politely, not having noticed Max standing directly behind him yet.

"Ah. Yes," Logan responded cautiously, but not entirely worried because Max was standing directly behind the man in full action mode. The man quickly reached into his jacket and started to pull something out. Before he had the chance, Max chopped him on the neck and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Bling, Logan and Max stood looking at each other for a while and the form on the ground. Eventually Logan bent down and gathered what was in the man's hand.

"Oh, whoops," he said, as he opened the very fancy envelope addressed to him and Max.

"What?" Max said quickly, looking anxiously at Logan.

"Ah, nothing. Well, that was Lord Tom's messenger," Logan said, pointing to the man on the ground. He handed the invitation to Bling and bent to help Max pick up the man and carry him over to the bleachers. After a few minutes the man started to wobble back into the conscious realm, albeit it somewhat confused.

"Where am I?" he asked slowly.

"At the track," Logan responded in a friendly voice.

"Sorry about smacking you on the head," Max said guiltily from behind Logan. Logan enjoyed the fact that Max was sitting behind him, with her hand on his shoulder as they watched the man regain consciousness.

"Entirely my fault. Lord Thomas warned me, a warning which I did not heed and so paid for," the man said, in an elegant English accent. Max looked away so she could roll her eyes at another one of these strange acting individuals.

"Well, I do not wish to take up anymore of your time. I trust you have the invitation," the man inquired busily as he stood up. Bling waved the invitation for him to see, and received a curt nod.

"Good good. I'd best be off. It was a pleasure meeting you, and no doubt I will see you again soon." And before anyone could utter another word, the man had left. All three of them sat there for a while, staring blankly at the space Tom's messenger had last stood, until Bling finally broke the silence.

"Lord Thomas?" He looked inquisitively to Logan and Max.

"Long story," they replied in unison.


	7. Coffee Tables and Cereal

Disclaimer: The usual. Own nothing, no money from this, Fox et al.

Author note: This is the second revision of this chapter, which took far too long to write. There are some other fic's in the work that are consuming some time/interest

Story note: A bit more senseless fun with Max and Logan. I promise that next chapter, or maybe the one after, will be more exciting.

Special thanks: Milla the beta, for her fantastic work. And to all the persons that review, it's just super of you.

Coffee Tables and Cereal

Having just dropped Bling off, Logan and Max were heading back to his apartment, Logan still full of beans from his run while Max was re-reading the invitation.

"It says formal. What am I going to wear?" she asked, looking at Logan a little worried.

"The red dress," Logan replied with a small smile. It wasn't a suggestion, or a question but a fully blown statement; a directive even.

"Really?" Max asked amused, giving him a funny look.

"Yep. I mean now that you own it, you might as well give it some sort of use. Anyway, since when have been concerned with that sort of thing? Not getting all girlie on me are you?" Logan joked, turning his attention back to the sector checkpoint they were approaching. Max bristled slightly at Logan's statement, since she was beginning to think she had become girlier recently with Logan, and she thought he liked it. That wasn't the problem however; the problem was her tough girl image was beginning to slide.

Several minutes later an uncomfortable silence had filled the car, Logan looked over to Max and noticed her fidgeting slightly, quite clearly confused and a bit miffed.

"What's up Max?" He questioned tentatively, still trying to maintain the light playful tone of before.

"Nothing." Max gave a short sharp reply, which caused Logan to reel slightly, as there was something quite clearly 'up'. 

"Come on. I know you well enough to know when there is something up with you. Share," Logan said warmly, reaching out and giving Max's thigh a gentle squeeze. She may have been getting better with looking at him and retaining some conscious thought, but there was no way she would be able to hold up against the gentle thigh squeeze. Max grabbed his hand and gave it a firm, reassuring squeeze.

"Nothing," she replied far more calmly and satisfactorily. Logan, however, still didn't believe her.

"Come on Max. It's me," he probed again more firmly.

"Nothing. So would you just drop it?" Max replied sharply. Logan could swear he heard the masonries getting back to work.

The trip continued in an awkward silence and Logan could feel the anger starting to radiate from Max; she was clearly pissed big time with him for something and stewing on it quite healthily.

"So when is this thing on?" Logan asked casually, desperately trying to get back into a conversation with Max.

"Wednesday," came the reply, far too snappy and short for his liking.

"So, think you can make Wednesday night free?" he joked, but couldn't help slide the pleading tone from his voice.

"Maybe," Max replied, sounding distant and tired with the subject. This did not bode well for Logan, he felt. The remainder of the car ride consisted of Max staring absently out of the window, with her body twisted away from him, and Logan nervously glancing at Max every few minutes. Finally they arrived back at Fogle Towers and parked in the usual place. Logan grudgingly alighted from the car and started to slowly make his way over to the lift. He was dreading greatly the prospect of being stuck in that confined space with an angry Max for what would undoubtedly be very long minutes. He had come to be halfway between the car and the elevator when he heard a slight scuffling behind him. Turning, he saw Max rolling her bike from behind Logan's car. Apparently he had blocked her in, to which he received a very menacing look. He stood back raising his hands into the air slightly to apologise, which he realised might only inflame the situation. Logan breathed a small sigh of relief when Max simply locked her bike and then headed over to the lift. He hurriedly made his way over, hopping not to anger Max anymore, but when he looked up he could tell it was already too late by the way she had her arms crossed tightly in front of her and was tapping her foot furiously.

The lift doors opened and Logan took a deep gulp; it was confrontation time.

"Okay, Max. What the hell is going on?" Logan asked forcefully as he turned on her.

"Nothing Logan, just drop it," Max retorted sharply, giving him a quick dark look then concentrating on the lift doors as they closed them in.

"Oh no, it's not," Logan continued, getting a little agitated as he backed Max into a corner of the lift. Max was surprised with Logan's movement, since he had never done anything like this before. Then on recollection she had only known him in the wheelchair basically, and that was not really an implement to back someone into a corner with. She came to a sudden and abrupt halt as her back hit the corner of the lift, with Logan still moving closer until he was only a few inches away. Max's expression darkened and her eyes narrowed. 'Oh great, so threatening doesn't work, maybe flattery.' Logan considered, seeing the sudden change in Max's stance and facial features.

"You don't want a cornered X-5 on your hands Logan," Max warned through semi-clenched teeth, coiling slightly ready to spring.

"No. A cornered Max, though, is just what I want," Logan replied tersely. Max's eyes snapped to his and widened slightly. 'What the hell is he talking about?' she thought, panicking slightly with this new situation.

"I'm an X-5, Logan," she said sharply, twitching slightly with the stopping of the lift. Logan clearly rolled his eyes, then turned and walked slowly to his half-door.

"You are always Max first," he said so quietly it was almost imperceptible. Max shook her head; she wasn't really angry with Logan anymore – confused maybe but not too angry – since it had been a fairly trivial event that she had once again blown out of proportion. She swore that no matter how hard she tried, a little bit of Lydecker was in there, trying to ruin her chance at a healthy and normal relationship. Besides, as good as she was at putting up walls around herself; it appeared that Logan was equally gifted at knocking them down. She was now utterly bewildered, and shook her head dramatically, hair flopping all over her face.

"Ow!" Logan yelped loudly, and proceeded to jump around with his finger stuck firmly in his mouth. An entertained Max made her way slowly over to the cavorting Logan, placing a gentle hand on his bouncing shoulder in an attempt to calm him. The effect was astounding, and not only did his frantic pained mumbling cease; he stopped jumping around and stood completely still, shoulders falling into a relaxed slump. Logan turned and smiled at Max weakly, clearly embarrassed.

"Splinter," he said by way of quite a pathetic explanation, before his finger retreated back into his mouth. Max gave him her best patronising smile, before putting on her favourite teasing tone.

"Oh Logie. Did that mean old lump of wood hurt you?" Logan noticeably flinched when she said his name, and he quickly raised his hand.

"Don't call me Logie,"

"Why not? Logie," Max questioned playfully.

"Probably the same reason you wouldn't want me calling you Maxie," Logan said pointedly, but so sickly sweet that Max cringed. Max's smile quickly turned to a frown. The name 'Maxie' was mainly used by Zack, so hearing it come from Logan was quite an unpleasant shock.

"Okay. Point taken," Max said. In reply Logan just nodded his head, since his finger had once again taken up residence in his mouth.

"Give me that," Max directed as she grabbed Logan's hand, pulling his finger from his mouth.

"What are you going to do?" Logan asked, clearly scared.

"Firstly, I'm going to get all your slobber off it," Max explained, grabbing the hem of Logan's shirt and using it to wipe his finger. Logan yelped a bit when she did this.

"You really are a baby, Logan," she scolded as she brought the finger closer to her face so she could better study the alien object.

"What are you going to do, Max?" Logan asked again, voice slightly shaking.

"Trust me, it will be all better in a second," Max said, still gazing at the splinter. She then slowly brought Logan's finger to her mouth, and started to gently graze her teeth over the surface until she felt the offending lump. Logan's eyes bulged, his throat dried, and he could feel his knees quickly weakening. That is, until Max's tooth hit the splinter and caused a shot of pain to run through his finger and apparently straight to his vocal cords, which let out a very un-masculine squeal. Max's eyes darted to his, and then rolled in an exasperated manner, teeth still working on his finger. Logan quickly forgot the pain, and couldn't quite understand how he remained standing when he felt Max's warm, soft tongue gently nudging his digit into place. Surely splinters were the most heavenly of inflictions. All too soon Max was standing with the offending slither of wood in hand and a pleased look on her face. All Logan could do was stand there with his mouth agape.

"U-uh, thanks," he mumbled, still clearly dazed and completely lost.

"No big dealio," Max replied sweetly, before walking into his apartment. When she was gone Logan slowly blinked out of his stupor before bending to run his hands over the lump of wood again. For the life of him, and much to his great disappointment, he could not acquire another splinter.

Max headed to the kitchen and jumped up onto her regular counter. Even though she'd eaten a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter, she was hungry; it was, after all, lunchtime. Logan walked into the kitchen carrying his lump of door, having not given up completely on the idea of getting another splinter, and looked at Max questioningly. He placed the wood on the tabletop and continued to look at Max.

"What? I'm hungry," Max explained simply, giving Logan a small smile.

"So you're my friend when you want something to eat?" Logan asked, heading to the fridge.

"Damn straight," Max replied, hopping off the counter and leaning across Logan – who was in the depths of his fridge doing the 'hunter and gatherer' bit – to retrieve the red cordial. Logan started to throw items over his shoulder quite haphazardly, in the assumption Max would be catching them, and since there were no thuds of cheese or ham hitting the floor he guessed he was right. He turned to find all the ingredients lined up neatly, with an expectant Max at hand sipping a glass of the bright ruby fluid. He began to busy himself with the various condiments, until he had produced two bulking sandwiches of magnificent awe. Just as he was closing the last sandwich, Max grabbed it and began to chew.

"Hey! I didn't say you could do that," Logan exclaimed, whilst making a desperate and quite fruitless grab for the defiled, yet still splendid, club. Max just looked at him, daring him to try and part her with her food. He gave up, throwing his hands in the air.

"Your loss," he partially explained as he turned and placed his sandwich in the microwave, zapping it ferociously for several seconds. Max's nostrils were assaulted with an incredibly wondrous aroma as Logan extracted his steamy lump of bread and melted cheese from the microwave, and quickly dumped it on a plate. She looked down at the nearly entirely devoured morsel she held, and saw an inferior and lesser sandwich in hand and was quite disappointed with her lack of patience. Logan saw Max's face droop when she observed the splendorous effects a microwave had on this particular concoction of bread, ham, cheese and a myriad of other secret ingredients.

"Fine," Logan said defeated, looking at Max's deep pout and incredible upset expression on her face. He was immediately reminded of a small child, who was bestowed with an ice cream only to witness its sudden, and unexpected, descent to the dirty ground below. He cut his serving and presented Max with half a portion. Her face lit up in such glittering magnificence, that he was again reminded of his small child with the lost ice cream who, after losing the ice cream, was presented with a larger one, and this time in a container. Logan considered giving Max the remaining half of his melted sandwich, just so he could once again observe her gloriously glowing response, had he not been starving himself.

"Thanks Logan," Max mumbled with full mouth and between bites. Logan chuckled slightly and then downed the remainder of his sandwich. He walked to his cupboard and retrieved a box of cereal, which he began to chew on absently as he walked around the apartment. Max stalked after him, eyes firmly attached to the bounty in his hands, and ready to pounce at the first sign of opportunity. Maybe it was Logan coming to know her, or he was in fact a superior tactical planner, because Max didn't see a chance at the food the entire time. Well, not a chance that would leave Logan standing. He continued to slowly traipse around his apartment, until he came to the door of his computer room. Looking in he had the sudden urge to check out what was going on, and how many messages and alerts he had. Max observed Logan looking at his computer with a strange sense of longing, which she could only half comprehend.

"You can check your stuff if you want Logan," she said, making her way up behind him, but more importantly the box of cereal that apparently went unnoticed in his hand. Just as she was almost on him, he turned, box shifting position to his chest, where he dug his hand in some more for the dried breakfast confectionary – Max had noticed it was a form of sugary, brightly coloured cereal.

"No. I said I'd spend time with you this weekend. And there is a whole half-day of it left," Logan said, turning to look at Max with a small smile covering the disappointment that his urge to check his computer would not be fulfilled. He was beginning to believe everyone who told him he spent too much time on that thing. Logan walked out of the room and back toward the lounge area. Max stilled for a moment, and then checked that her photos were still in place before heading out after him.

Logan sat on the couch staring out the large windows, with cereal in lap munching on it happily.

"Hey," Max said lightly as she dropped next to Logan on the couch, sprawling in a traditional cat-like nature.

"Hey," Logan said distantly, still staring out the window with his arm now making predictably timed returns to the box in his hand. Max smiled mischievously and when Logan's hand had just left the box with a fist full of crunchy sugary bits, Max grabbed it and hopped up. Logan didn't notice until his hand reached down for some more food only to find air and eventually his own stomach.

"Hey. Give that back," Logan said, when he finally realised that the box was now with Max who was standing at the edge of the couch watching him, and chewing on cereal.

"I don't think so," Max said cheekily, digging her claw in once more for another handful. She wasn't sure if it was surprise or the fact that she was stuffing her mouth full of food, that she didn't realise Logan was up from the couch and charging at her. For the rest of her life she would deny it, but Logan was there and he witnessed it, even though he was sworn to secrecy by serious threats to vital parts of his anatomy, but Max squealed like a little girl, turned tail and fled from him. They ran through the apartment for a few minutes, leaving a trail of cereal wherever they went. Max laughing and occasionally squeaking, as Logan got closer – only because she let him – until he managed to corner her in his room. Max looked at him playfully, grasping the near empty cereal box in her hand. Logan was breathing heavily from his exertions, and reminded himself that chasing Max around, even in a playfully manner, was hard work. A wicked grin came to Logan's face as he eyed Max standing nervously in front of him with a twisted smile.

"Don't hurt me," Logan said, just before he lunged through the air straight at a very surprised Max. She quickly beat her instinct into submission so she didn't end up kicking Logan out of the air, which left her completely preoccupied, and she only had her senses back when Logan's arms were just beginning to wrap around her shoulders as his momentum lifted her from her feet slightly. Logan twisted through the air so Max would end up landing on him, not taking the brunt of the landing. Even though she was stronger and tougher than him, he was always going to try and protect her; it was something that couldn't be helped, it just happened. Eventually they came to a bouncy landing on Logan's bed, accompanied by a cracking noise. They were still all of two seconds before the cracking noise made itself known in the form of the bed breaking in two, and collapsing to the floor. They both scuffled off the bed in a process made considerably harder by the manner in which it had conked out, causing the mattress to swallow them, and surveyed the pathetic sight. Logan let out a sad whimper and bent down to pat the mattress slightly; Max gave him a very funny look.

"Oh, you've been with me a while," Logan sighed, straightening to stand next to Max as they both looked at the very dead bed.

"Logan, you're talking to a bed," Max stated, sure that Logan had finally lost it.

"I've had this bed for sixteen years. It's been good to me. Some good memories," Logan explained in a distant voice, but seemingly happy with various recollections.

"Do I fit into that category?" Max questioned playfully. Logan looked at her and smiled, then raised his hand so it was horizontal and just above his head height in front of him.

"You're about here," he explained, swaying his hand slightly to enforce the fact. Then he slowly lowered his hand until it was just below his waist.

"The rest… down here somewhere," he chanced a quick smile toward her before looking back at his bed. 

"You're damn right I am," Max said through a large smile, nudging Logan slightly with her shoulder.

"A little confident aren't we?" Logan asked playfully, momentarily forgetting his stricken bed.

"Genetically engineered perfection, remember?" Max replied triumphantly with a smirk. In response Logan returned a smirk of his own, and a small smile that made it appear he was hiding something.

"What? How many genetically engineered super-soldiers have you had?" Max asked turning to him and swatting his chest, where her hand remained. Logan grabbed her hand then brought it to his mouth to kiss her fingers.

"Don't worry. You're the most recent," he said with a mischievous smile, as he turned and started to walk out of the bedroom. He stopped when he heard the disbelieving response from Max.

"What?"

"Well how do you reckon I was able to pin you to Manticore so easily from just seeing your barcode? Maybe I ran into one of your sisters a little while ago," Logan suggested with an air of mystery surrounding him as he walked out the bedroom door. Max stood there stunned for a few seconds. Surely Logan would have told her if something like that had happened, but then she considered that Logan wouldn't have told her exactly for that reason. Just as she was considering the thought of busting his chops over this, he stuck his head back in the doorway.

"I'm kidding, Max," he said with an infectious smile. Max felt a little silly, of course he was kidding.

"I knew that," she snapped rather defensively. Logan just smiled at her knowingly before heading back to the lounge.

When Max emerged from the bedroom she found Logan sitting on the couch reading a pamphlet. She plopped down next to him depositing the empty box of cereal on the coffee table in front of them.

"Watcha doing?" she asked as she began sucking the sugar off her fingers.

"Looking for a new bed, since you broke my last one."

"Me? You were the one that tackled me onto it," Max retorted incredulously.

"Well whatever. I need a new one now," Logan replied, smiling to himself.

"Yeah, that one had an annoying squeak in it," she agreed with him, and then leant over him a little so she could look on at the pamphlet. Logan's smile doubled when Max spoke about the faulty bed, seeing as she had now been in it.

"So what are you looking for?" Max asked, snapping Logan from his pleasant daydreaming.

"Oh… ah something bigger, that's for sure," Logan said, haphazardly pointing to one of the beds in the brochure. Max wrinkled her nose and looked at Logan with a disbelieving looking on her face.

"Yuck."

"Well obviously not _that_ one. I was just showing you the general size," Logan then flipped through some more pages.

"How about this one?" he asked, pointing to another bed, which he thought was far nicer.

"You have got to be joking. Remember the models don't come with the bed," Max said, again amazed at Logan's apparent bad taste in bedroom furniture, whilst addressing the fact that there happened to be a scantily clad woman splayed across it.

"Fine. I won't get one. I'll just sleep in the guest room for the rest of my life," Logan replied in defeat, throwing the pamphlet on the table.

"No, we'll go bed shopping tomorrow," Max said, picking up the brochure to go through herself.

"It's a date," Logan said, smiling at Max warmly. She turned to him and nodded slightly, a pleased look on her face.

"What are you going to do with that old mattress?" Max asked after a small while.

"Throw it out, I guess. I'll have to arrange something,"

"I'll take it." Max jumped at the opportunity quite eagerly.

"Max, it's just an old stained mattress," Logan said, a little stunned that she wanted it.

"Beats the hell out of my three-inch thick piece of foam," Max explained, already deciding how to arrange the large mattress in her limited bedroom.

"Good, that gives us something to do this afternoon then," Logan said, comforted with the thought of having something more to do than just sitting around, since he had run out of plans and was worried Max might become bored. Of course there was one thing he could think of to take up the time, but it was far too un-gentlemanly to suggest.

"Wait a minute. Don't you have work tomorrow?" Logan asked, suddenly realising that their bed shopping date probably wouldn't happen now.

"That's what lunch break and being held up at sector checkpoints are for," Max explained, still rifling through the brochure.

Logan got up and headed to his room, returning a few minutes later dragging the mattress behind him. He propped it up against the wall and surveyed the damage from the red cordial. Thankfully it was quite minimal, as it appeared the greater quantities had ended up on himself and Max, so it wouldn't require any serious cleaning. He moseyed over to Max – with the occasional crunch as he stepped on a piece of cereal – who happened to still be buried in the depths of the pamphlet.

"You want to get the mattress to your place now?" he asked casually, sitting down again next to Max, and dropping his hand on her knee. Max was momentarily taken off guard when his hand rested on her leg, and so she looked at Logan a little panicked and a little scared. He quickly removed his hand and felt quite silly.

"Sorry," he mumbled, clearly embarrassed. Max had slipped into such a familiar rhythm with Logan that she had mislaid the fact they were like that now, and it was completely acceptable for her to want him to do that sort of stuff. She noticed that Logan was shifting nervously now, and looked like he was about to get up and leave.

"Don't. I'm sorry. It's just new… you know? Doesn't really seem real," Max said, placing her hand on his thigh to quell his movements. Logan smiled at her sheepishly, still a little embarrassed with her reaction to his touch. Max knew he wasn't quite comforted with her words; she sure as hell wouldn't be if the situation were reversed.

"I've just wanted something like this for so long, and now that it's happening, it's kinda hard to believe," Max said quietly as she flung the pamphlet onto the coffee table and rose to her knees on the couch beside Logan. She then spun around, and straddled him, pinning him in place on the sofa. He was feeling more nervous now, which really bugged him and didn't seem to make much sense since he had spent the last few days rolling around naked with this girl, so his hands remained passive on either side of him resting anxiously on the lounge. 

"I'm sorry about before. I do like it when you touch me like that," Max gestured to where she had been sitting, referring to his touch. Logan was amazed that she could be over him like she was and yet they still weren't touching. 'Well that's something that needs changing,' he thought, considering Max's words. He started to lift his hands off the couch when he was interrupted by Max.

"I'm not that repulsive am I?" Max questioned half seriously, and then before Logan could react, she grabbed his hands and placed them firmly on her waist.

"I suppose not," he replied with a sly grin, sliding a hand up her back until it rested under her hair across her barcode. He pulled her down to him and when their lips were a few millimetres away, all of Max's hair cascaded over her shoulders around Logan's face, truly creating a world of their own.

About an hour and some serious tonsil hockey later, they lay intertwined on the couch in the most bizarre of fashions. They couldn't really said to be on the couch, since their legs were the only parts resting on it. The main portions of their bodies were wrapped together under the low coffee table in a very intricate knot. Max was half lying across Logan's upper-half, and she had her hand under his shirt resting on the bare skin of his chest. Logan pinned delightfully under Max and had his hand under her shirt, unfurled across the small of her back.

"Well, I'll never be able to sit in this room again without smiling like an idiot," Logan stated happily, raising his lips to Max's for a delicate peck. 

"That's what coffee tables are for. Hiding under and making out," Max said lazily. They had both agreed that earlier was pretty understandable since they had been living in denial for so long, it was pretty easy to slip back into the old ways. Their decision was to just ignore it if it happened again, and then 'kiss and make up', which had been Max's exact – and fairly adamant – words.

"I'm thirsty," Max stated happily, then begun to unwind herself from Logan. Five minutes later they were standing once more – Logan had been most uncooperative in untangling himself from Max – and headed to the kitchen. They grabbed their red cordial, and then went to see about getting the mattress into Logan's car. It took them forty minutes to get the mattress in the car. Forty minutes. A genetically engineered super-soldier and a man who consider himself to be a fairly lateral thinker, and that was the best they could do. When Logan had made his last bad joke about it being a good thing it wasn't a life or death situation, Max had finally lost it. So against Logan's greater warnings that folding the mattress into four even pieces would damage all the internals, Max just gave him a dark look, stuffed it in the back of the car and then dusted her hands and headed back to the lift. As they waited for the lift to get back down to them, Logan grabbed Max's hand, instantly melting her bad mood.

"A lot better than the last trip up," Logan commented warmly as the lift slowly started its ascent. 

"Oh, I don't know. I kind of like it when you're all assertive and authoritarian like," Max commented playfully.

"Really?" Logan asked, as he turned on her, backing her into the corner of the lift. She just smiled innocently at him when her back hit the wall and she couldn't retreat anymore. Her response was wrapping her arms around his neck and drawing him toward her.

Max had just finished consuming another melted cheese and ham concoction, being conscious enough to wait until Logan said she could have it this time, and was washing her hands when she noticed the time.

"I think we better get that mattress over to my place now," she said as she emerged from the kitchen to find Logan looking at the bed brochure again.

"I don't see what's wrong with this bed," was his reply, not looking up.

"You really do have a thing for that girl don't you," Max chided. Logan just looked at her blankly, then went back to observing the beds. He really did like that bed.

"How about this? When you get your new bed, and after I have approved it, I might wear practically nothing like your girl there, and sprawl myself across it in a similar fashion." The pamphlet fell from Logan's shaking hands to the ground, entirely forgotten. He looked at her and she could tell he was trying to speak but all he could do was open and close his mouth several times. 'Gee, flabbergasted is a cute look,' Max thought as Logan continued to look at her and gape a few more times, with a steadily increasing grin threatening to split his face in two. She couldn't believe how excited he looked; it was truly amazing and resulted in her face forming an equally substantial – if not slightly embarrassed – grin. Logan then got up and ran to his computer, sliding around the place in his excited rush and sending the cereal detritus on the floor in all new directions.

"What the hell are you doing?" Max asked as she followed after him.

"Research for this bed shopping expedition. Have to find all the good shops so we can get that bed back here as soon as possible," he explained turning to her and giving a cheeky smile. Max smiled and shook her head slightly. He was still a male underneath it all.

"Come on, Logan, we need to get that thing into my room soon. 'Cause this weather isn't going to last forever, and I don't like our chances of getting it from your car to my place without getting filthy, if it's going to start raining on us." Logan just gave her a 'mmm' and continued to flick through the various bed-ware sites, not making any perceptible signs of moving.

"You know, I need to make sure it works and everything once it's in," Max said suggestively, this time gaining Logan's attention. He looked at her questioningly. Max had a small triumphant smirk, but smiled at him even more suggestively raising an eyebrow slightly. Five minutes later Logan was in his car following Max – who had still managed to grab the photos – over to her place.


	8. Inundated

Disclaimer: The usual. Own nothing, no money from this, Fox et al.

Author note: I know, it's been a while. I have seriously neglected this fic, and for good reason. No one is reading it. But, I don't like to see things unfinished, so I crudely slapped this together.

Story note: More was supposed to happen, but I got side-tracked again, so this chapter just sets up a few things (gasp, not a plot), no not a plot. Forgive the last section, it is kind of, well crappy.

Special thanks: No one, I have no beta reader anymore, and you will notice that with a vengeance (that's right, you can notice it with a vengeance), this chapter, since I haven't really gone over it much, and I didn't invest a lot of time and effort. So basically, I apologise, this chapter is a load of shaz.

Inundated

Logan awoke to the familiar experience that was the feel and smell of his own bed. He didn't want to open his eyes and discover himself alone in his penthouse with nothing to show for the past few days except one magnificent dream. However, a constant droning finally caught his attention. Traffic. He didn't get traffic noise in his high-rise and fully soundproofed apartment, which meant… no, it couldn't be. He kept his eyes closed, since he knew that when they opened he would find his mind had been playing tricks on him, and he would not be where he wanted to be. He shifted his arm a little to get comfy, and heard and felt a scuffling.

'Spider!'

Logan jumped up and started searching for the offensive creature, only to discover a primitive post-it note – comprising of half a sheet of A4 paper and some sticky tape –had been attached to his arm.

_I tried to wake you to say bye, but you told me to go away. Someone's not a morning person, and it's not me._

_I would offer you free range over the kitchen, but there isn't anything in it._

_Go home, have some breakfast and remember we're going shopping._

_You're buying lunch._

_Page me,_

_Max_

So his senses did not deceive him he realised, as a small whoop of joy escaped his lips. Folding the note as if it were original biblical text, he placed it with the greatest care in his pants pocket, and then put his pants on. Which in itself was an action to cause much merriment.

It turned out that everything he remembered had happened, and now he was getting out of his bed – which was now Max's – in her bedroom, in her apartment. He walked around for a bit, not snooping, just perusing. 

'Needs a lick of paint,' he thought, as he noticed the bare walls and crudely scrubbed out graffiti. A few minutes later, his stomach rumbled, so he checked his watch to see where about in the day he was.

'Eleven! You have got to be joking.' Without much further ado, he rushed out of the apartment and to his car and home.

He got back to his apartment around 11:20am, and went to the fridge to grab some food, since he noticed he had run out cereal when a kernel crunched under foot a few strides in from his half-a-door. Sitting in front of his computer, snacking on some reheats, he had the phone in hand with the honourable intention of calling Max, and arranging a time and place for them to meet, until he nudged the mouse, and on instinct set the computer in motion. 

If he hadn't been aware of his own existence, he would have sworn the world exploded. There were that many messages of desperation, he didn't know where to begin or if he would be able to manage it all in… 10 minutes. Probably not, was his conclusion. He picked up the phone again, when another message appeared on his screen, capturing his attention. This alert was urgent; this needed immediate attention about two days ago. He got down to some serious Eyes Only hacking, the phone moving to his lap, where it lay forgotten.

"Damn sugah, relax, you gonna blow a fuse or somethin'," Original Cindy commented as Max stormed around Jam Pony muttering something in a bitter twisted rage.

"Men… finally get together… forgets everything… gonna kill him…" Cindy caught the drift of what was going on between the growls and hisses that were coming from behind Max's clenched teeth.

"What's he forgotten boo?" she asked knowingly, her mind once again set against the opposite sex. Max's head snapped up from her furious storming.

"What? Who? I don't know what you're talking about," Max replied, but there was no way she could make her voice sound as cool, casual and flippant as she would have liked.

"Your boy," she replied, sounding rather tired with the 'we're not like that' attitude.

"He was supposed to call me. We were going to go looking for a new bed for him," Max replied absently and quite quickly.

"And he hasn't paged you? Damn, stupid male," Cindy replied, somewhat surprised. Max just replied with a quick 'Tell me about it' look, which Cindy quickly reconsidered to be more of an 'I'm going to kill him' look.

"I hate to tell you this sugah, but he's out of the chair now, and boys cheat. He's probably just out being a doggy-dog," Cindy informed as she pulled a paper bag from her locker and headed over to the small eating area.

"No way, not Logan," Max said defiantly.

"He's male, it's what they do-"

"No Cindy, you're wrong about him, he's different," Max said, glaring at Original Cindy threateningly. Of course, the doubt had just been raised, and thoughts of Logan making up for lost time or something ridiculous like that kept flashing through her mind. Cindy noticed the anguish on Max's face and decided to change to topic from despicable cheating men.

"Fine, he ain't like that. Maybe he's being held hostage or something. You got lunch?" she jested lightly, wanting to get stuck into her food. Max looked at her blankly for a few seconds as the realisation sank in; she didn't have lunch and that was all Logan's fault. Her fury built greater when she realised she was going to go hungry, and then a thought suddenly occurred to her.

"What do you mean, 'held hostage'?" Max asked quickly.

"Nothing, just the man seems to lead a very mysterious lifestyle. I was only joking, boo," Cindy said, as she finally found a seat and began to hand some of her food to Max.

"Thanks," Max said quietly, her mind on a different path to the food exchanging hands.

She had taken her first bite when the thoughts careening through her head became too much. She walked promptly over to the phone and dialled his all too familiar number.

"What?" Came the sudden, harried and quite short reply when Logan answered his phone. Max held the phone away from her ear and looked at the speaker piece in total disbelief. He had forgotten all about her, and he was being a total ass.

Logan was about to abuse the person on the phone for wasting his time when the line was cut. 

For the past hour, ever since he had turned his phone service back on, he had been inundated with calls, and most of them were complete wastes of time. There had been someone trying to get him to change phone companies for about two whole minutes before he could get a word in. His word, not being very politely spoken, but to the point was somewhere along the lines of, 'I don't use any phone companies, my phone is free, so I don't think your plan would be better for me,' followed quickly by an angry stab at the hang-up button. Then someone else followed that call, with an urgent job for Eyes Only, which turned out to be a Laundromat that was purposefully using broken machines, so as to get the money but not actually provide a service. And then that call was followed by someone who just sat on the line, not saying a word.

His instinct quickly got the better of him, so he did a quick search of the previous call to determine its origin. It could always be something important, or someone bad who happened to know his number.

The address flashed on his screen a few seconds later, and he was positive it was the original source of the call. But why did that address seem so familiar?

'Oh, dear,' he thought, as the blood drained from his face.

Fumbling frantically he called the number back immediately, the only notion going through his mind was exactly how dead a person could be.

After slamming the phone down, and being yelled at by Normal about damage to company property, Max stared at the phone in disillusioned fury as she stewed on the immense rage building inside of her. Just as she had turned and was stalking her way back to Original Cindy, the phone rang. Without realising it she was back at the phone, the earpiece crammed uncomfortably close to her ear. The fact that Logan could have this effect on her made her even angrier.

"You have no idea how good you better make this," Max said coldly, knowing instantly from the silence that it was Logan.

"Look, Max, I was about t-" 

"About to what, Logan? Call me? Well, news flash, it's already too late. So here I am stuck at work, starving, having to skimp food from the mouth of my friend."

Logan swallowed hard, and realised that his temperature had already gone up a few degrees causing sweat to pop up on his forehead and the palms of his hands.

"Max, there isn't anything I can say except sorry. I got back from your place at about eleven-thirty and the informant net exploded at me. And you know old useless me, I get quite distracted," Logan said, his voice bitter and disappointed with himself.

"You're such an ass Logan. Is this what being your girlfriend is going to be about? Being forgotten all the time because of your precious work?" Max asked scathingly. Logan winced, he deserved that, but it really wasn't a nice thing to think about, especially so early in their relationship.

Max for her part hoped she hadn't overstepped the line with her last few comments. Sure she was pissed at him, but she didn't want to start suggesting they see less of each other all of a sudden. After all, his Eyes Only work had been on hold for nearly a week and mostly for her, and she new it was already built up.

"No, Max. I'm really sorry. I-I don't know what to do," he said, his voice getting sadder by the second.

"Just don't be such an ass, and you better not be cheating on me because I _will_ kill you," Max said, still riled with anger but a little less acidly than her previous statements. She hung up the phone before Logan could stammer his response, and walked back over to her lunch.

"So, I take it your _boyfriend_ ain't bein' held hostage," Cindy said with a smile on her face and a laugh in her voice. Max looked at her pointedly for the emphasis, and cocked an eyebrow.

"What? You yelling loud enough at that boy, everyone could hear you," Cindy said, her sides beginning to shake slightly. Sure enough, when Max scanned the room she noticed many eyes flick away from her and a few that just kept staring.

"Well, I hate to miss lunch," Max retorted irritably, digging into her share of Cindy's food.

Logan stared blankly at his computer screen for several minutes, his mind reeling with the conversation he just had.

'Okay, just give her some time,' he thought, biting into his fingernail nervously. He just hoped that 'some time' wasn't going to be fifty years or more. His final conclusion was to shift back to the Eyes Only stuff, and get it out of the way. There was nothing he could say to Max at the moment to get on her good side. He was pretty sure that he wouldn't even be able to talk with Max if he wanted to. The mood of frustration from earlier had faded, and he returned to the struggles of the Informant Net, sad, depressed and deeply disappointed with himself.

After Max's anger had subsided, which took about two runs; she was feeling a lot more concerned with her actions then when she was yelling at Logan.

'Why was I so angry with him? He forgot lunch, so what? He had tons of work to do I already knew that. Maybe I shouldn't be so greedy, I mean, I have been hogging him for that past couple of days, maybe he just wanted a break from me? Why did I have to push him away so far so quickly? I hope he'll take me back, or forgive me, or forget about the whole thing. Just page me, Logan.' These were the thoughts that tailed Max around for the rest of the day, until work had finished. He hadn't paged, he didn't want her back, and he had obviously cut his losses.

Cindy was leaving when she noticed Max sitting in front of her locker looking at her pager, willing it to shrill.

"What's up boo?" she asked quietly, taking a seat next to Max.

"I think I've already destroyed me and Logan. I didn't need to yell at him so much, he had tons of work, and I kept him from it for ages. He hasn't paged, he doesn't want to speak to me again," Max said sadly, continuing to gaze at her pager.

"Look sugah, Original Cindy goin' break it down a little for ya. Logan screwed up, cause he got all caught up in what ever it is he does to live in that trick apartment of his. And now, 'cause you gave him the yellin' he deserved, you feelin' guilty that he hasn't called you all day. His either stubborn, like all the mens are, or he is scared that you are thinkin' what you think his thinkin'," Cindy explained, dazzling herself a little towards the end of her statement. Max looked at her uncertainly.

"You think? I mean, he doesn't hate me or anything?" Max asked unsurely.

"You got to be jokin'? That man head over heals in love with you girl, there's no way he hates you after something stupid he did," Cindy replied incredulously, sure they were together now, but they still seemed oblivious to their feelings for each other. Max smiled weakly and flushed slightly.

'Loves me? I don't know about that one,' she considered hopefully, wanting to doubt her own negativity.

"What's say we blow this joint and hit Crash," Max said, with a smile on her face, getting up and grabbing her jacket.

"Now you're talking. Let that male stew on what he's done," Original Cindy replied with a laugh.

"After all, I still missed out on lunch," Max said positively, as they headed out the door.

Logan sat quietly by his computer, it was nearly three in the morning and he had just shifted through all his work, none of it being very serious. He sat there tapping the same key repeatedly, staring into space and wishing Max would stop by to yell at him some more. Sure being yelled at wasn't nice, but her stoping by would mean she had forgiven him enough to be there at least, and since that hadn't happened, he just remained stuck in his computer chair hitting the same key again and again staring at the wall.

After sitting in his chair for a while, he got up and shuffled around his apartment a little. First order of business was to clean up all the cereal that lay everywhere. Fetching a broom, this task was fairly smartly wrapped up, so he then moved to the kitchen to have a go at all the leftover mess from Max's wonderful stay.

'Cheating on her? That had to have been a joke, there is no way… no, it was a joke, Max wouldn't believe that,' Logan thought, as he scrubbed at some cheese stuck to the counter-top.

"Stubborn cheese," he muttered, as he got out a fork and began chiselling it off.

A soft beeping noise started coming from the computer, stopping him mid-chisel. He walked over to it and sat down, ready to investigate and most probably file in the 'junk' section. However, the message detailed a meet between a serious underworld figure and the mayor, which was going down in about 20 minutes. Logan sat there, furiously tapping his foot, this was the kind of thing he needed Max to do. Then he realised that he was in fact tapping his foot furiously, this was the kind of thing he could do again, and not put her life at risk.

Grabbing his gun, some delicate electronic recording equipment and his jacket he quickly left the building.

A shadow on his roof undulated slightly.

Logan parked his car and began walking to where the meet was being held. He checked his gun one last time before placing it in his pocket, and then checked all the equipment he had brought with him to record the exchange.

Approaching the building, he noticed sentries doing sweeps of the area, walking around the warehouse in pairs with flashlights shinning. He stopped to observe their patterns, and ascertain if he would have a chance of sneaking through unobserved. They were fairly efficient however; so there was no gap of time long enough to approach the building. Cursing his bad luck and their good planning he sat back in the small shadowed doorway he occupied to consider his options, when he noticed that the pair due around at this moment weren't there. Pausing for a few seconds to determine if they were on their way, he heard no footsteps and so decided they weren't. Quickly and as quietly as he could, he ran to the edge of the building, crouching low the whole time.

He had been fortunate enough to dump the blueprints of the dilapidated warehouse when it was once a major carpet store. Hopefully nothing had changed in twenty years. Popping his head around a corner, he saw the stairs he was aiming for, and a guard at the bottom.

"Damn," he cursed softly, pulling his head back around the corner and resting it against the wall. There was no other way into the building apart from those stairs and the front door, which happened to be where the meeting was being held, so that was a no-no.

In one last fruitless hope, he peeked around the corner again, and found that the guard was no longer there. Taking his chance he scurried to the door, opened it, and began the painfully noisy ascent up the steel stairs. Cringing with each echoing step, he finally made it to the top and the suspended walkway that ran the length of the warehouse.

He glanced down the other end, and noticed the meeting had just started, but that wasn't what had him worried. He faced another great length of steel walkway, and seeing as it was suspended, his heavy footfalls would resound terrifically throughout the warehouse. In a state of distress he almost over looked the fact that there was carpet laid out along the walkway in chunks big enough for him to easily step between.

'Hmph, lucky tonight,' he thought as he quickly came to the end of the walkway, where a pile of carpets were heaped giving him perfect view of below, but also an excellent hiding spot.

Seconds later his devices were set up and all he had to do was sit back and let them record the audio and video of the nasty doings the two most powerful people in the city were planing. He smiled with the information, knowing that he could easily shut these two down, well at least shutdown the Mayor, and he was the one that seemed to be in control.

The conversation had just wound to a close and Logan was delicately packing away all his equipment when two bodyguards came sprinting into the meet, guns drawn.

"There's someone here," one of them shouted to the Mayor.

Not waiting around for a second, Logan began the painfully slow task of making his way back stealthily along the carpeted catwalk. As he turned to see what was going on below, he lost sight of his feet in front of him, which collided with a container, knocking it over and creating one hell of a racket.

Before the curse could cross his lips he heard the distinctive sound of metal hitting metal at high speed off to his left, very closely followed by the actual sound of the bullet exploding from the gun far below. He ran as fast as his newly reinstated legs could carry him toward the safety of the stairwell. Had he have looked back, he may have noticed a shadow fall like a drop of ink from the rafters, cracking the concrete floor on landing, and unleashing an incredible fury on the gun wielders.

Logan ran down the stairs, silence no longer as important as speed, each step resounding throughout the calm morning air. He burst through the door, the cool crisp air stinging his lungs as he pounded along his entry path in the opposite direction. For a second he wondered what had happened to all the guards, and why his exit was so much more painless than his patrol littered ingress.

Sitting in front of his computer, Logan quickly got to work on the Eye's Only hack. Surprisingly, it only took him around half an hour to create the entire suite of hacks, leaving him charged with adrenaline and nothing to do at four in the morning. He realised he should go to bed, but it didn't feel right, as he was hardly in the mood, and more importantly he was missing Max.

He had a shower, and crawled into the guest bed anyway, favouring Max's side in an attempt to feel her warmth, or at least smell her hair on the pillow. Neither happened, so he lay there restlessly, shifting around and staring at the ceiling, sinking further into his lonely sadness.

After several long minutes had passed in wide-eyed thought staring at the ceiling, he got out of bed, threw a robe on, and walked down his hall to a small utility cupboard. Shifting some junk on the floor out of the way, he lifted a secret piece of panelling that revealed an old, solid safe. Several twists of the combination lock later he swung the door open and grabbed a shoebox from inside, then closed the safe again, and replaced the secret floorboard.

Back in his living room he opened the box and took an old tape out, placed it in the machine then sat back on the couch, still cradling the shoebox. He fingered the remote and the screen came alive, the old tape playing was scratchy and distorted for several seconds while the machine adjusted itself. Logan used this time to file through some contents of the box, a sad reminiscent smile on his face.

The room was filled with children's laughter, and Logan looked up at the screen and saw a freshly minted eight-year-old version of himself sitting behind a cake with a paper hat on his head and a toothless smile.

The camera swerved around drunkenly, an indicator that his father was filming, until it stopped and zoomed in on a stunning woman, with a slight glow about her, his mother, this being another indicator his father was filming. The glow of his mother and the joviality of the camera motions were due to one fact, and that was the bulge a five-month-old new baby brother or sister created taking up residence in her womb.

Logan's smile increased with his sadness. His parents were so happy together, and they had reason to be, since they had it all. Each other, a roof over their heads, and a growing family. This was all Logan ever wanted from life, and he had always thought he would have it.

_"Just remember Logie, anything you want in life, you can have," _his mother had told him, and at the time, his response was a remote control car and a knowing laugh from one of the most significant women in his life. He had always believed it too, that was until his entire family were torn callously away from him many years later. All he wanted was them back, or for it to be a horrible nightmare and he would wake up to the familiar sounds of his younger sister pummelling on his door screaming for him to get out of bed.

It was that point in his life where he took the turn towards a fast life, since nothing mattered anymore, but mainly because he felt so desperately and hopelessly alone. No one wanted him, and no one needed him. The only reason he had hung around on this planet was because of fast cars and fast women, which were enough to crudely band-aid the pain if he kept it chaotic enough.

As the years dragged by, he became bitter and sour with the world that had done nothing for him but deprive him of everything he loved, and everyone that loved him.

So, as he sat there tearing his emotional insides to shreds with the images flashing in front of his eyes, and that brave but utterly heartbreaking smile on his face, all he wanted to do was let it out. But he couldn't. He'd never cried, it wasn't something he felt necessary, since he felt the pain, and all crying did was create anguish for others.

Sometimes he found the deep chill of gloom that occasionally crossed him as refreshing, like he was cleaning out the old wounds of his battered soul. He wasn't really sure, but he knew that at times like these he was more than content to wallow in the depression his world had created for him.

He lay down on the couch, box of photos clutched close to his chest as his head lay on the armrest, allowing him an uninterrupted view of the television. The pain and sorrow etched deeper into his features as the tape jumped forward to his sisters first birthday, and the love and warmth that was now merely electrical signals radiated the air.

Outside, a shadow's heart broke, as a single glistening silver bead slowly descended with the pull of gravity.


	9. A Good Day

Disclaimer: The usual. Own nothing, no money from this, Fox et al.

Author note: Talk about taking my sweet, sweet time. I must apologise to those of you interested in this fic. I have been a complete arse. I have had tons of time to write this but have not been able to. I seriously have spent so many hours working this chapter, however. It would probably be more time than it took me to write Red Cordial and the chapters of this up until this stage. My god what a struggle. Hopefully you will like this chapter, but alas, it may take me some time to put something together for the next chapter, but you never know.

Story note: Okay, story. So far (a brief recap since it's been so damn long) Max and Logan woke up nude and in the same bed, due to a heat episode that was resolved between the two of them. Then they had a visit from Tom an eccentric English Lord, who then invited them to a party. Max and Logan fought badly what with Logan letting her down, etc. Now we have this chapter. We go bed shopping and have lunch.  
The next chapter will be the ball, I promise.

Special thanks: There were some people, two, if I can count correctly, who dropped a review or two asking about this chapter and the completion of this story. To them we should all thank (those who wanted to see this chapter that is) because I was reminded of it in the sense that I had half a chapter there that desperately needed finishing, so I tried and I tried and here it is. 

Thankyou maggieann452 and GingerSnap.

A Good Day

Logan woke the next morning to find the box of pictures had slipped from his chest and the television softly rasping with static. Groggily he got to his feet, placed the tape back in the box and then returned it to it's original location in the safe of his utility closet floor.

He walked into the kitchen and got a small serve of bland, uninteresting cereal, which he ate perched atop his kitchen counter. As he sat there, he noticed the small spot of melted cheese still stuck to the table top, so, using the handle of his spoon, he finished the process of chiselling it off. When that was done – to little joy, mind you – he checked the time and with a heavy sigh realised that it would be an excellent opportunity to broadcast his cable hack of the Mayor and his dirty dealings with the underground boss.

He walked into the computer room and froze solid with what greeted him.

A very subdued Max walked cautiously into Jampony. Immediately Cindy noticed the slight lean and uneasiness of her gait. Something that Max usually carried off with an inhuman amount of poise and grace.

"Okay sugah, I know you been hitting it with your hot boy, so I won't even ask why you didn't come home last night. But what's the funky new step?" she asked, clearly concerned.

"Nothing, I'm fine," Max replied uneasily. Cindy immediately saw the turmoil in Max's eyes.

"Woah, hold up there girl. What's goin' on?' she accused nervously, dragging Max to sit down next to her by their lockers.

"Nothing," Max reaffirmed, nervously checking her pager.

"Okay, we'll start easy then. What happened to your leg that's got you hobblin' around?" 

"Just a little side effect from jumping seven stories onto solid concrete and landing a little crooked." Max responded casually.

"You what?" Cindy replied incredulously.

"I'll be completely back to normal by lunch time, so don't worry." Max cringed a little as she said lunch time, and old memories were revisited.

"Havin' trouble with the black helicopter boys or just sprain it or somethin' kickin' some ass?" Cindy ask, trying to get Max talking so she could attack her one more serious issues, like why she looked as if she were about to break down at any minute.

"Actually, I broke it in three places."

"You should be in hospital, boo!" Cindy exclaimed, becoming very 'mother hen' suddenly.

"No, I shouldn't. Another fantastic benefit of having a mixed bag of tricks for a body." Max again looked nervously at her pager.

"You waitin' for a call sugah?" Cindy asked, knowing the previous conversation had been well and truly shut-down.

"Yeah, maybe," Max replied distantly.

Logan actually stumbled back he was that surprised with what was in his study. All the walls and computer monitors were covered with pictures of himself and Max in various stages of embrace. Featured primarily were the photos from the shower and the hospital. He couldn't help but smile as he realised that Max had in fact acquired the camera from Bling and then kept it herself.

He sat down in the computer chair with a large smile on his face as he gently pivoted from side to side looking at all the pictures before him. He then noticed that on the main monitor was a small sheet of paper with something written on it. Plucking the sheet from the screen he saw that it was Max's delicate scribble, and five very small, diminutive and seemingly submissive words.

I'm sorry

please page me

There was something so touching and meaningful about this gesture from Max that Logan shivered slightly and realised that he hadn't seen her for a over a day. He folded the note gently and placed it to the side, then set his computer in motion.

Max and Cindy had just come back from a run and were having a mid morning break in the small lounge area. Max's depression had only deepened throughout the morning, checking the pager on her hip had steadily increased to several times a minute.

'Okay, so he's still asleep, he was up till four and he needs sleep,' Max kept thinking to herself. A sudden burst of static ripped straight through her.

"_This is a Streaming Freedom Bulletin..."_

A hushed silence feel over the employees of Jampony as they looked on with awe at the under-ground journalist and listened intently to the information and footage of the Mayor dealing with the Mafia boss. All of them, that was, except Max.

Cindy turned to gossip a bit with Max and saw her friend even more distraught and upset than before.

"Max, what's up?" she asked concernedly.

"Nothing," Max sniffed defensively. 'He has to have seen the note by now, and he still hasn't called. I knew it, he's over me,' Max thought sadly.

"Hey hey hey, you bums, place of business!" Normal screeched, before furiously tapping his watch and diving into another 'Bip bip bip' diatribe.

Max slowly walked past him and grabbed a package, making her way to her bike, with Cindy hot on her heels.

"What the hell is goin' on, Max?" Cindy asked hotly.

"Delivering packages," Max replied flatly.

"Don't give me that. You know what I am talking about, boo."

"Well, it's something I don't want to talk about, so I'm going to go and deliver my package." Max responded somewhat aggressively, before turning and pushing her bike out the door. Cindy looked at the empty doorway in disbelief that she had just been blown off by Max.

Just as Cindy was about to go after her, she heard the familiar pulsing of Max's pager, followed less than seconds later by a whirl of wind and colour that was soon identified as Max running to the phone.

Max dialled the number frantically, and discovered it to be engaged. 'I can't believe someone has called him already.' Just as she was about the hang up the dial-tone sounded before being replaced with Logan's voice.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Logan, it's me. Max," Max said anxiously, hearing Logan chuckle slightly at the other end didn't really make her feel much better about the situation.

"Hi, Max. How has your day been?" he asked casually.

"Hell. Caught your hack, who were you on the phone with?" Max spoke in a rush.

"Ahh... when?" Logan asked, sounding slightly confused.

"Just now. I rang and it was engaged."

"Oh, I think you started to call before I had put the phone down." Logan replied, with another small chuckle.

There was a sizeable pause.

"Listen, Max, I'm sorry about standing you up yesterday-"

"It's okay, really. You had all that work to do, I'm sorry for jumping down your throat," Max quickly interrupted, trying to assure him that she wasn't angry.

"But, I should have called you," Logan responded.

"Yeah, you should have, but it's alright, really."

"Okay. So, do you want to try it again today? I promise the only thing that will stop me from turning up is death, but I'm not allowed to do that either, since you'd kick my ass," Logan said lightly.

"Damn straight. Same time, same place?" Max asked eagerly, Logan could hear her grinning through the phone.

"Yep. See you at twelve-thirty."

"Yeah, okay. We need to talk about some things as well," Max said nervously.

"Yeah, I figured we'd have to do that," he responded with a sense of foreboding.

"See you later, Logan."

"Bye, Max."

'Talk? No that doesn't sound good at all,' Logan thought, staring absently at the phone he had just placed back in the cradle. 'At least she's talking to you,' he reminded himself with a more positive air.

Logan walked out of the small, secluded store and into the throng of people that were swarming towards the food centre. He was in the main business section of Seattle, which had seen a fairly significant recovery since the Pulse and now featured one of the most popular food courts in the country. The mass of people dispersed significantly after getting through the bottleneck that was the entrance, so Logan ambled over to the seats surrounding the large garden that was the main centrepiece of the hall and where he would be meeting Max.

Several minutes past when Logan thought he heard a slight rustling in the bush behind him but put it down to some of the children he had seen climbing in there earlier, ignoring their mothers yells of disapproval. Moments later, however, some gloved and slightly chilled hands closed over his eyes, a few soft silken threads fell against his neck and a warm breath millimetres from his ear sent shivers down his spine and a broad smile across his face.

"Guess who?"

"Hmmm, well, they wear gloves, so they obviously do something fairly physical for a living. Their body is small, lithe and I'd say fairly attractive. Hair is soft and smooth, voice is sweet, tender and delicate, but is hidden behind a tough-girl attitude. And, they snore in what little sleep they get. I'd say... Jondy."

"I haven't seen you for a while, you should probably go because I'm meeting Max soon and she'll get suspicious. She doesn't know about our past." His playful response was answered with a smack over the head and a body in his lap.

"I don't snore," Max said indigently, throwing an arm around Logan's neck and bringing her nose to rub gently against his.

"Of course you don't. Jondy does," he said, before stealing a quick kiss. Max scowled at him in possibly the most non-threatening manner he had ever seen.

Logan began to stand and Max slid gracefully from his lap but still managed to secure one of his hands with hers.

"Do you want some food now?" he asked, already knowing the answer so beginning to walk off. Max nodded and followed him, not that she had much choice because she wasn't giving up the prime real estate that she had in his arm.

When Max noticed the huge line of people waiting at every single eatery she groaned audibly, "We're not going to get anything to eat for about seven months with these lines."

"We'll see," Logan responded mysteriously, leading Max through a small pile of people jostling for one of the many communal tables and then up a set of stairs.

"Ah, Mr Cale, what a pleasure to see you again," greeted a friendly enough looking man after Logan had pushed through a door at the top of the staircase.

They had walked into an incredibly comfortable and cheery looking restaurant, however, the first thing Max noticed was that it was completely empty, which seemed out of place since it was the luncheon hour.

After a slight hesitation, in which it appeared Logan didn't want to let go of Max, the two shook hands warmly before the man led them to a small table, collected the menus and walked off in what Max guessed was the direction of the kitchens.

"Shouldn't he be leaving the menus here, so we know what we want?" Max asked with a slight tone of annoyance, she'd come here to eat god damn it!

"Don't worry, I've already ordered for us. I trust you like... well anything I've given you so far, so I'm sure you'll like what's coming for you," Logan said, chuckling slightly at Max's quickness to temper over food.

There was a pause in which Max looked out of the window and at all the people milling about below, Logan grew more nervous with this 'talk' he knew was going to be taking place soon.

"My quality of life has certainly improved since I tried to rob your ass," Max said lightly, still looking on the crowds below. Logan, not exactly sure where she was going with this, decided to opt with the safest option and not say anything.

"You're the first nocturnal mission I failed, you know. Hell, the first _ever_ mission I failed." Logan blinked in surprise at her statement. Again leaning to the side of silence to see what Max was getting to.

"You're just so... distracting. I always screw things up when I'm around you," Max said, taking a large gulp of the wine that had been poured without her noticing. She looked at him and smiled shyly before looking back out the window again. Logan swallowed nervously, not liking the sound of this terribly much.

"Sorry," he mumbled submissively, looking down at the napkin in his fingers.

"You don't need to be sorry about anything. I-I like being distracted by you," Max managed to stutter. This change in tone captured Logan's attention with interest. He studied her features and noticed that she seemed to be nervous, very nervous. Max could feel his penetrating stare on her and knew there was no way she could do what she wanted if he kept that up.

"Don't look at me like that, Logan," Max demanded softly. He went back to looking at his napkin, which was quickly becoming a finely shredded pile of cloth.

"There are things I need to tell you, Logan. Things about me and things about you, but more importantly things about me and you." Logan swallowed with a loud gulping noise. This was it, the part where she suggested that it really wasn't going to work out between them on this level and it would be better if they 'see other people'. God he hated that phrase. His unease and substantial distress had gone unnoticed by Max, who continued to speak, although she wasn't really saying much.

"Oh, god. I don't know how to say this," Max cried in frustration.

"My mother once told me that when you don't know how to say something, you're thinking too much about how to word and sugar coat the deal. It's best just to say it." 'God, where the hell did that come from? I'm supposed to be doing all in my power to cajole against us breaking up, not add weapons to her arsenal,' his inner monologue berated. His panicked eyes shot to Max to see if he could interpret an emotion or feeling, so he would have a better chance to stave off the inevitable. He was quite surprised to find Max smiling warmly at him, her expression seeming slightly relieved.

"You're mum, now that's an excellent point, which will cover the 'you' part of our conversation," she said cheerily, before her face became softer and more compassionate. Logan blinked again in surprise, he didn't think his mother was going to be coming into this.

"Why have you never told me any more about your parents than they were loaded?" Max asked quietly.

"It's something I don't really like talking about," Logan responded slowly.

"Why?" Max asked earnestly.

"Did you know I had a sister?" Logan asked ignoring the question, his tone taking on a strange distant quality.

Max paused, unsure if she should admit to watching him. She steeled herself with another big gulp of wine before responding nervously. "Yeah, a younger one, right?"

The confusion and surprise on Logan's face would have been evident to a blind man. After a few seconds, however, a look of understanding and dawning comprehension came over him.

"You followed me last night. That's why I had such an easy time at the warehouse." Max nodded mutely.

"I'm sorry Logan, but I had to."

"Why?" He sounded genuinely curious.

"Because, I was worried about you, because I-I..." another large gulp of wine, "I want you to be happy and I know how I reacted yesterday wasn't fair and I had to see you again, even if you wouldn't see me." Max's palms were slicked with nervous sweat, her heart rate was fast and increasing with each second he sat there and studied her with that intense gaze. This wasn't even the big stuff and she was already a nervous wreck. Trying for another gulp of wine, mainly for something to do, she found her glass empty. The silence was getting too much.

"Say something," she almost pleaded. His face was written with an unreadable expression, as his eyes searched her face. For what, Max didn't know, but she hopped he found something he liked.

"I never mention my parents, or Claire – my younger sister – for that matter, because it's so hard to think about and even worse to talk about. Well, I think it would be." He laughed a shallow laugh, he had never tried to speak about it before as no one had ever asked.

"Why don't you try?" Max suggested timidly, cautious of the terrain she was treading.

"I take it you saw the video I was watching?" Logan asked. Max nodded slightly. "That was taken at my eighth birthday party, in the backyard."

"You were an adorable eight year old." Max pointed out, causing Logan to smile slightly.

"One of my presents was this stuff called 'Gack', which is like this plasticy goop stuff. Really fun."

"That robot cake you saw, I had another three times. I loved that cake." Max could see him digressing but didn't interrupt as he seemed to be enjoying his reminiscing. 

"We played this game with doughnuts that you tie up with string and hang from a tree, you have to try and eat them without using your hands. Kind of like an inverted bobbing for apples, without the water and a much more satisfying reward."

"Those times, with my family, were the best times of my life. Then they were taken away from me and I was all alone. After that no one really wanted me around and I didn't really want anyone around."

"I knew I should have kicked that smug bastard's ass," Max mumbled. Logan laughed at this and shook his head slowly.

"No, I think it was best you didn't kick his ass at my cousins wedding. But hey, there's always Thanks Giving."

"Yeah," Max agreed with a smile.

"Anyway, I thought that with Eyes Only I'd feel better by helping others or at least distract myself with so many _important _things that I wouldn't have time to remember. And I did, but it was never the same as having a family and there was always an emptiness there, something I couldn't fill but could ignore pretty well." He glanced at her again before looking out the window and heaving a heavy sigh.

"And then you came along."

Max's eyes widened in disbelief. 'What the hell is that supposed to mean?' she thought, fear for their relationship setting in. Logan noticed her stunned expression and laughed slightly.

"No, not like that. You came along and everything in my life changed again." Max released a held breath.

"Firstly; there was the fact that you were – and still are – the most amazing image of female perfection I have ever seen, which of course meant my intentions were not entirely honourable."

Max raised an eyebrow and feigned indignation. "I had no idea. I thought you were after me for my mind. You cad."

After a brief smile Logan continued. "Then the shooting happened and you came back, saved me in the hospital, then left again. Of course, not after you went and took out Sonrisa."

"I couldn't get you off my mind for that whole three months, and then all of a sudden, there you were. Breaking into my place again."

"Every time I thought of you, I knew that I would never see you again, knew you wouldn't risk the chance of exposure, but you came back anyway. Then after that, I knew that you were just coming back to get information about your siblings."

"I got to know you, and I really liked what I was getting to see. Your kindness for others that no matter how hard you try you can't cover with a tough-ass-no-cares-in-the-world kind of attitude."

"Max..." Logan paused slightly, as if trying to weigh up what he should say next. "... you, you restored my faith in humanity. That no matter how hard life has been to people there is still good in them."

"Isn't that ironic," Max piped in.

"How?" Logan asked curiously.

"Well, you're the people's crusader and you were the one always telling me to give a damn about others, that there was good in them. And here you are telling me that I restored your faith in humanity. It's just funny s'all. Hell, I'm not even human."

"Don't say that ever again," Logan cut in aggressively, "you're more human than anyone I've ever met."

"Not on a genetic level though," Max replied quickly.

"So what? And stop getting all technical," Logan said, managing to grab one of her hands and give it a firm squeeze. "So there you go Max, you saved me from myself. Thank you."

Max had absolutely no idea how to respond to something so sincere and meaningful, and the fact that Logan had said it about her was particular affecting in a way she had never known before.

"Logan, stop it. I think you're gonna make me cry," Max said with a half-sniff half-laugh. "No one has ever said anything like that about me before and it's kinda hard to believe."

"Well believe it, because it's all true," said Logan.

A comfortable pause followed in which they looked at each other, then Max spoke up.

"I suppose that's covered the 'you' part of the conversation."

"So we get to do the 'you' part of the conversation now?" Logan asked brightly.

"Yeah, I suppose it does." Max paused and looked out the window again and the people milling about below.

"You know, there's not much about me that you don't know, really. So why don't we just get our food and start eating." Max shone a dazzling smile at him and he seemed to weaken slightly.

"Oh no you don't. There is no way you're getting out of this that easy," Logan said, returning a brilliant smile of his own.

"Okay, so I guess I'll just start where I left off before," Max said nervously.

"Seems like a good place," responded Logan reassuringly.

"You're distracting, I can't think straight when I'm around you, and now I can't think straight when I'm not around you."

"When I'm with you, I just want to stay with you and when I'm not with you, I'm desperate to see you again. Then when I do see you again, there's this huge wave of relief that you're real and not something I just made up. It feels wonderful to be around you and terrible to be away." Max was rambling and seemed quite agitated, to the point of knocking over her empty wine glass.

"I don't know what's happening to me, it feels nice, but it's so different. I've never had a friend like you before, Logan." When Max had finished, she looked up from her wrung hands to see Logan's face split near in two with a massive grin.

"Logan."

"Yes, Max."

"I think I love you."

"Yes, it looks that way." Logan paused slightly as if considering something.

"You know what, I think I love you too." Max's smile was clearly enough to power five lighthouses.

"No, yes, I definitely love you, Max."

"That's good," Max said brightly.

"It is, isn't it?" Logan laughed.

"Yeah, because now that's the 'us' part discussed, which means we're done talking and can start eating."

Without turning around, Logan raised his hand and waved it twice. Nothing seemed to happen for a while in which Max and Logan just looked into each others eyes with goofy expressions on their faces.

"What better way to celebrate this occasion than with food?"

"I can think of a better way," Max stated some what melodramatically. "Kiss me, you fool!"

He did, and they were most pleased.

Around thirty minutes later many piles of empty plates and a contented Max and Logan sat around the small table, contemplating their next moves.

"We really should get moving on those bed shops if we want to get you something before I have to go back to work," Max said, leaning back in her chair and stretching a little.

"Yeah, and we also need to get you some scantly clothes to wear on my new bed," Logan said with a slight waggle of his eyebrows.

Max swatted him but then laced her fingers through his as they walked out of the restaurant and into the thinning throng below.

"You know, I've been thinking," Logan said, taking a bite of an ice cream Max had insisted they buy as they ambled along the cleaner than your average post-pulse side walk.

"Sounds dangerous," Max replied, eyeing Logan's double-choc since her hazelnut swirl had long since been consumed.

"We really should buy you a new dress for the ball."

"Why bother? I have a perfectly functional one hanging in your cupboard, which, let me remind you, I have only worn once," Max replied, sounding slightly scandalised at the prospect of spending that much money on something she would only use once. "Anyway, I was under the impression you quite enjoyed the way I looked in that number?"

"Oh yes, I did indeed. It just seems like the thing to do, buy a new dress for a social function. But I suppose I'm more used to the high society, snooty girlfriend type who expect that type of thing."

"What are you trying to say Mr Cale?" Max responded, stopping their walk to confront him.

"Nothing at all. Just, you're going to save me some money," he laughed and began walking off again.

"Tryin' to tell me I'm cheap or something buck'o?"

"No, you're anything but cheap, Max. You should know that by now. Think of all the things you've broken."

"Logan I swea-"

"Would you look at that, here's the first store," he interrupted quickly, before ducking into a shop.

About half an hour later Max and Logan stood by the last bed in the shop. It covered all the credentials Logan was after; big, low to the ground, dark timber and most importantly Max approved of it. There was only one last thing to do.

"Mmm, comfy too." Logan said as he wriggled on the mattress. He rolled around a bit and seemed fairly happy with how it felt.

"Come on Max, climb aboard," Logan said, patting the space beside him.

She looked around uncertainly at first, not entirely comfortable about getting into bed in the middle of the day in the middle of a shop but it seemed that there were very few patrons in the store and all the attendants were either busy with them or at the other end of the store. She carefully sat on the bed and then lay down, looking very stiff and a bit nervous.

"You need to relax if you're going to test out a mattress properly," Logan said, twisting around a little more.

Max let herself relax and closed her eyes, the firm mattress quite the comfort. Logan was moving around a bit more which she chose to ignore since he had been doing that ever since he got onto the thing. It was only when the light through her eyelids darkened did she begin to worry. When her eyes opened, Logan was coming down on her with the sheets, blankets and other assorted bed coverings held over his head.

"Logan!" Max yelped in surprise as her world was momentarily blackened. His head had fallen down beside hers and he gently scrapped his scruff covered face against her cheek, sending shivers down her spine.

"Yes?" he responded, his voice far too deep.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing," he responded, but of course his definition of nothing differed from Max's because nibbling on her ear like that was anything but nothing.

Her body sighed traitorously and Logan knew he had her. His mouth soon found hers and Max quickly stopped trying to push him and their coverings away.

"Hem." Max paused slightly, however soon fell victim of Logan's ministrations again and forgot the sound.

"Hem!"

They both stopped this time and looked at each other, their faces both written with the same embarrassed expression. Busted.

Logan slowly pulled the small tent of bed clothing off them. Their faces were flushed and their hair had been seriously effected by rubbing against all that fabric and so now fuzzed quite a deal, their breathing was also quite elevated.

Max looked up and could have sworn she saw the elderly shop assistant smile briefly before fronting a far more serious demeanour. Logan looked up at her and smiled, cheeks going crimson.

"I'll take it!" he finally declared.

As they walked back to their respective means of transportation Max noticed the small bag Logan was carrying.

"What's that?"

"A surprise, so don't even bother asking more," he cut her off, knowing what her next question would be.

"What time will you come by my place tonight?" he asked as they came to Max's chained bike.

"I'll come over straight after work, how's that?"

"Sounds good to me," Logan responded brightly, not quite remembering when he had been this happy before.

Max mounted her ride and looked at Logan uncertainly. "We don't have to do that 'love you' business every time we leave each other and stuff, do we?"

"I should hope not, never been a fan of that. As long as we know, I reckon 'bye' will be just fine." He then leaned in and kissed her briefly.

"Oh by the way, I think this belongs to you," Logan said, producing some black and slightly laced.

"You, what? When they hell did you do that?" Max said, recognising the garment as her own and the one she had been wearing just that morning.

"These fingers are skilled in more than just computer wizardry," he responded with a terrific smirk.

Max stuffed it in her back pack and kissed Logan again.

"See you tonight."

"Yes you will," Logan responded. Max put foot to pedal and began to ride off.

"Oh, and Max," she turned and looked at him as she rolled on slowly, "love you."

Logan chuckled as he heard Max cursing as she rode off about double-standards and such.

'Today has been a good day,' he thought with a smile.


End file.
